oscillate
Americanverb (used without object)
-
oscillates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
oscillated,
past participle, past
-
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)
-
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
-
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
-
had oscillatedperfect
-
was oscillatingprogressive
-
were oscillatingprogressive
-
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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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:
Thus, governments oscillate between ignoring developments that are moving too fast to process and aggressively intervening when scary risks appear.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 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
At the heart of the technology are microwave-frequency vibrations that oscillate billions of times per second.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 26, 2025
Would it oscillate back and forth until it came to rest?
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The Relative Strength Index, which oscillates between zero and 100, is a widely followed underlying technical indicator that measures the magnitude of recent gains against the magnitude of recent losses.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 19, 2026
“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
In a cavity’s lowest mode, the radio waves’ electric field oscillates uniformly up and down along the cavity axis.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 20, 2024
At the core of the film is the undeniable chemistry between Pitt and Clooney, which oscillates between camaraderie and competition.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2024
It oscillates up and down faster and faster as it approaches the singularity, whipping from positive to negative and back again.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
International oil prices have oscillated under $90 a barrel in recent days.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
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
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
Throughout its history, Pakistan has oscillated from more civilian autonomy to overt control under military leaders like General Pervez Musharraf and General Zia-ul-Haq.
From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2025
The only sound was the fan, clicking each time it oscillated across the room.
From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss
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
Like many recent theater school grads, Dela Cruz was still trying to find his niche as a performer, oscillating between the pursuits of ethnic ambiguity — a casting asset — and cultural identity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026
While this study focused on plasmons, the new chip-scale THz spectroscope could detect other types of quasiparticles oscillating in many different 2D materials.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2025
“Like a clock that is not oscillating properly.”
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
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.
