oscillate
Americanverb (used without object)
-
oscillates,
present (3rd person singular)
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oscillated,
past participle, past
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oscillating
present participle
-
to swing or move to and fro, as a pendulum does.
-
to vary or vacillate between differing beliefs, opinions, conditions, etc..
He oscillates regularly between elation and despair.
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Physics. to have, produce, or generate oscillations.
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Mathematics. (of a function, sequence, etc.) to tend to no limit, including infinity.
The sequence 0, 1, 0, 1, … oscillates.
verb (used with object)
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oscillates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
oscillated,
past participle, past
-
oscillating
present participle
verb
-
(intr) to move or swing from side to side regularly
-
(intr) to waver between opinions, courses of action, etc
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physics to undergo or produce or cause to undergo or produce oscillation
Synonym Usage
See swing 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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oscillatesimple
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oscillatessimple
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have oscillatedperfect
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has oscillatedperfect
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am oscillatingprogressive
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are oscillatingprogressive
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is oscillatingprogressive
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have been oscillatingperfect progressive
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has been oscillatingperfect progressive
Past
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oscillatedsimple
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had oscillatedperfect
-
was oscillatingprogressive
-
were oscillatingprogressive
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had been oscillatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of oscillate
1720–30; < Latin oscillātus (past participle of oscillāre “to swing, ride on a swing”), equivalent to oscill(um) “a swing” + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
On a hot day, you’ll be happy to have a fan that can oscillate, meaning it moves back and forth in a steady motion. The verb oscillate can be traced back to the Latin word oscillum, meaning "swing," so it makes sense that oscillate is used to describe an object like a fan or a pendulum that swings from side to side. The word also can be used to describe a different kind of motion — the wavering of someone who is going back and forth between conflicting beliefs or actions. If you’ve ever had trouble making up your mind about something, you probably know what it feels like to oscillate — back and forth from one decision and to another and then back again. And again. And again.
Vocabulary lists containing oscillate
Unit 1: Telling Details
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"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“People oscillate between euphoria, depression, anger and hatred,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
The waves could have gotten the vessel to oscillate back and forth, Sharpe said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
Conditions oscillate between La Nina and its warming opposite El Nino, with neutral conditions in between.
From Barron's ● Mar. 23, 2026
“It’s been kind of a sideways-driven market that is continuing to oscillate between good economic data and bad jobs data.”
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 5, 2026
Would it oscillate back and forth until it came to rest?
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
“Space-time doesn’t just curve and expand; it also twists, oscillates, and sucks. Go outside on a cloudless night, and outer space will start sucking the heat right out of you.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
RSI, which oscillates between 10 and 100, tends to rise when prices rise.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 6, 2026
As the next round of talks approaches, the public oscillates between faint hopes for diplomacy and an acute awareness that events far beyond their control may reshape their future overnight.
From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2026
But someone in L.A. could have felt the “S” wave, in which bedrock oscillates perpendicular to the direction of the propagation of the wave, according to Page.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2024
Good writing can flip the way the world is perceived, like the silhouette in psychology textbooks which oscillates between a goblet and two faces.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Its overall light field oscillated in the same direction, even though it contained photons of different colors traveling along many different paths.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026
I’ve oscillated wildly between thinking the U.S. will ride a host-nation bump to the semis and worrying they’ll be humiliated by Paraguay and soccer in this country will be canceled forever.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
Even though the stock-bond correlation has oscillated widely over the years, this ratio has remained remarkably constant — as you can see from the chart above.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 30, 2026
The sudden dip in air quality levels since Saturday came after the capital had shown some improvement over the past week - when it oscillated between "poor" and "very poor".
From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2025
His rebellious spirit made him violate all the taboos and consequently he always oscillated between moods of intense elation and depression.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
The Selic policy rate is 13.5% with inflation oscillating around 4.5%.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026
Once the separation becomes larger, however, the individual time crystals no longer lock together and instead continue oscillating independently.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026
The debate about AI and jobs has become exhausting and largely unproductive, oscillating between “AI will take all jobs” and “AI will create more jobs than it destroys.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
"Financial markets are oscillating in a narrow, uneasy range as traders sized up the countdown to Donald Trump's Iran deadline," wrote Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.
From Barron's ● Apr. 7, 2026
Doctors came running up from every direction with needles, lights, tubes, rubber mallets and oscillating metal tines.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
