Word Meanings - UNDULATORY - Book Publishers vocabulary database

Moving in the manner of undulations, or waves; resembling the motion of waves, which successively rise or swell rise or swell and fall; pertaining to a propagated alternating motion, similar to that of waves. Undulatory theory, or Wave theory

Additional info about word: UNDULATORY

Moving in the manner of undulations, or waves; resembling the motion of waves, which successively rise or swell rise or swell and fall; pertaining to a propagated alternating motion, similar to that of waves. Undulatory theory, or Wave theory , that theory which regards its various phenomena as due to undulations in an ethereal medium, propagated from the radiant with immense, but measurable, velocities, and producing different impressions on the retina according to their amplitude and frequency, the sensation of brightness depending on the former, that of color on the latter. The undulations are supposed to take place, not in the direction of propagation, as in the air waves constituting sound, but transversely, and the various phenomena of refraction, polarization, interference, etc., are attributable to the different affections of these undulations in different circumstances of propagation. It is computed that the frequency of the undulations corresponding to the several colors of the spectrum ranges from 458 millions of millions per second for the extreme red ray, to 727 millions of millions for the extreme violet, and their lengths for the same colors, from the thirty-eight thousandth to the sixty thousandth part of an inch. The theory of ethereal undulations is applicable not only to the phenomena of light, but also to those of heat.

Related words: (words related to UNDULATORY)

• MOVER
  1. A person or thing that moves, stirs, or changes place. 2. A person or thing that imparts motion, or causes change of place; a motor. 3. One who, or that which, excites, instigates, or causes movement, change, etc.; as, movers of sedition. These
• MOVELESS
  Motionless; fixed. "Moveless as a tower." Pope.
• ALTERNATING CURRENT
  A current which periodically changes or reverses its direction of flow.
• ALTERNATION
  Permutation. 3. The response of the congregation speaking alternately with the minister. Mason. Alternation of generation. See under Generation. (more info) 1. The reciprocal succession of things in time or place; the act of following and being
• MOTIONER
  One who makes a motion; a mover. Udall.
• MOTIONIST
  A mover.
• WAVESON
  Goods which, after shipwreck, appear floating on the waves, or sea.
• MOVABLE
  1. Capable of being moved, lifted, carried, drawn, turned, or conveyed, or in any way made to change place or posture; susceptible of motion; not fixed or stationary; as, a movable steam engine. 2. Changing from one time to another; as, movable
• ALTERNAT
  A usage, among diplomats, of rotation in precedence among representatives of equal rank, sometimes determined by lot and at other times in regular order. The practice obtains in the signing of treaties and conventions between nations.
• SIMILARY
  Similar. Rhyming cadences of similarly words. South.
• MOVE
  To transfer from one space or position to another, according to the rules of the game; as, to move a king. 3. To excite to action by the presentation of motives; to rouse by representation, persuasion, or appeal; to influence. Minds desirous of
• WHICHEVER; WHICHSOEVER
  Whether one or another; whether one or the other; which; that one which; as, whichever road you take, it will lead you to town.
• UNDULATORY
  Moving in the manner of undulations, or waves; resembling the motion of waves, which successively rise or swell rise or swell and fall; pertaining to a propagated alternating motion, similar to that of waves. Undulatory theory, or Wave theory
• SWELLTOAD
  A swellfish.
• MOVIE
  A moving picture or a moving picture show; -- commonly used in pl.
• SUCCESSIVELY
  In a successive manner. The whiteness, at length, changed successively into blue, indigo, and violet. Sir I. Newton.
• ALTERNATENESS
  The quality of being alternate, or of following by turns.
• ALTERNATIVENESS
  The quality of being alternative, or of offering a choice between two.
• PROPAGATIVE
  Producing by propagation, or by a process of growth.
• MOTION PICTURE
  A moving picture.
• ENMOVE
  See EMMOVE
• EXCITO-MOTION
  Motion excited by reflex nerves. See Excito-motory.
• VORTEX THEORY
  The theory, advanced by Thomson on the basis of investigation by Helmholtz, that the atoms are vortically moving ring-shaped masses (or masses of other forms having a similar internal motion) of a homogeneous, incompressible, frictionless fluid.
• PROMOVE
  To move forward; to advance; to promote. Bp. Fell.
• NERVIMOTION
  The movement caused in the sensory organs by external agents and transmitted to the muscles by the nerves. Dunglison.
• IRREMOVABLE
  Not removable; immovable; inflexible. Shak. -- Ir`re*mov"a*bly, adv.
• UNMANNERLY
  Not mannerly; ill-bred; rude. -- adv.
• UPSWELL
  To swell or rise up.
• DINGDONG THEORY
  The theory which maintains that the primitive elements of language are reflex expressions induced by sensory impressions; that is, as stated by Max Müller, the creative faculty gave to each general conception as it thrilled for the first
• DISSIMILARLY
  In a dissimilar manner; in a varied style. With verdant shrubs dissimilarly gay. C. Smart.
• SUBALTERNATE
  1. Succeeding by turns; successive. 2. Subordinate; subaltern; inferior. All their subalternate and several kinds. Evelyn.
• GERM THEORY
  The theory that living organisms can be produced only by the development of living germs. Cf. Biogenesis, Abiogenesis. 2. The theory which attributes contagious and infectious diseases, suppurative lesions, etc., to the agency of germs.