Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To cause to move in a smooth wavelike motion.
- v. To give a wavelike appearance or form to.
- v. To move in waves or with a smooth, wavelike motion. See Synonyms at swing.
- v. To have a wavelike appearance or form.
- v. To increase and decrease in volume or pitch as if in waves.
- adj. Having a wavy outline or appearance: leaves with undulate margins.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Wavy; having a waved surface. In botany, wavy; repand; bending, or having a margin which bends, slightly inward and outward: as, an undulate leaf; undulate striæ. Also
undate , undulated. Comparesinuate , In zoology, marked with wavy lines. Specifically, in entomology; Wavy; forming a series of gentle curves which meet in reversed curves: as, an undulate line or margin. Rising and falling in gentle curves: said of surfaces and also of margins. Marked with parallel wavy lines. - To have a wavy motion; rise and fall in waves; move in waves.
- Synonyms Waver, etc. See fluctuate.
- To cause to wave, or move in waves; cause to vibrate.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To cause to move in a wavelike motion.
- v. transitive To cause to resemble a wave
- v. intransitive To move in wavelike motions.
- v. intransitive To appear wavelike.
- adj. Wavy in appearance or form.
- adj. Changing the pitch and volume of one's voice.
- adj. botany, of a margin Winding up and down gradually relative to the blade.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Same as undulated.
- v. To cause to move backward and forward, or up and down, in undulations or waves; to cause to vibrate.
- v. To move in, or have, undulations or waves; to vibrate; to wave.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having a wavy margin and rippled surface
- v. stir up (water) so as to form ripples
- v. move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion
- v. occur in soft rounded shapes
- v. increase and decrease in volume or pitch, as if in waves
Etymologies
- From Late Latin undulātus ("undulated"), from *undula ("small wave"), diminutive of Latin unda ("wave"). (Wiktionary)
- From Late Latin undula, small wave, diminutive of Latin unda, wave; see wed-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“These flat, white, square pieces of audio equipment--"They almost remind you of an empty white canvas," says Rudolf Frieling, SFMOMA's curator of media arts, who curated this piece -- rotate and undulate gracefully on pivot points, randomly directing laser-like beams of sound from the fifth-floor pedestrian bridge, which sits just under the museum's iconic circular skylight.”
“With the precision placement of bricks made possible by a robot, it ought to be possible to build a flat wall that would undulate in 3D when viewed as a stereogram.”
“The only part that required much thought was generating the floor polygons, which undulate back and forth between two shapes.”
“The nylon structure consists of 9 hexagonal canopy units and is stabilized by anchors and lighting equipment in each of its 35 columns, allowing it to undulate and shift in wind and changing weather.”
AIR FOREST: Inflatable Pavilion Lights up the Night | Inhabitat
“The wind made feathery grass undulate like a golden sea.”
“Find a cozy spot on your lover's lap in the Lapland region of Finland to watch rare blue-hued Northern Lights undulate across dark skies.”
The Huffington Post: Amy Chan: 10 Romantic Date Ideas For Valentine's Day
“Enveloping him, she watched as his face began to undulate through the variations she was sure were those of pleasure.”
365 tomorrows » 2009 » December : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day
“A single cart passed down beside me, and at once, without the slightest warning, the road began to undulate; and the next minute I was in water up to the knees, and one wheel of the cart had sunk through the wood pavement up to the axle.”
“I eyed the shimmering portal once again, watching it seem to undulate.”
“The collection took an artsy-fartsy, oopsie-daisy turn about midway through the show when seams began to undulate and dresses began to resemble oversize works of origami sculpture.”
The Washington Post: Fashion Week: Dolce and Gabbana, Robert Cavalli, Brioni, Giorgio Armani
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘undulate’.
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Leaves
phyllodial, phyllodium, phyllodineous, leaf, lamina, petiole, stoma, cuticle, stomata, apex, vein, craspedodromous and 122 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Waves and Waveforms
wave, brainwave, soliton, traveling wave, tidal wave, transverse wave, capillary wave, cats' paws, alpha wave, light wave, microwave, acoustic wave and 314 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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LIT - Iliad - key words and protagonists
abduct, abducting, abductor, Achaea, Achaean, Achilles, advise, Aegean, Aegean Sea, Aegina, aegis, Aeneas and 713 more...
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Notable
undulate, priaprism, alphanumeric, conjure, love, roughshod, helpless, palatial, chortle, swimmingly, mustachioed, symbiotic and 21 more...
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ecbatic's list
woofits, concierge, winsome, garish, cognate, peevish, oodles, undulate, fodder, nonpareil, reticulated, gabulous and 13 more...
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Words I loathe
can't, hate, skree, pomp, russel, moist, damned, pure, justified, saved, fulcrum, cooch and 11 more...
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Old words
recalcitrant, grok, Hiatus, shanghai, pervade, diffuse, tempestuous, incorrigible, daunt, cull, Erudite, Assuage and 35 more...
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unpassibilities
uninhaled by yarb's un list
unbecaming, inare, unnihil, ununify, unbecome, ungruent, unversion, uninhale, unbrio, unfuoco, uncamerate, ungone and 49 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Vocabulary
Words I come across while reading.
talus, echelon, onanistic, cabochon, avocation, charnel, moue, portentous, prolixity, astringent, hoary, patina and 165 more...
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Un-word List
untrammelled, untoward, unenthusiastically, unenthusiastic, undaunted, uncanny, unceasing, unbridled, unacknowledged, unacquainted, unadorned, unaffected and 239 more...
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btkuhn's list
persnickety, perspicuity, perspicacity, augur, churlish, enervate, schadenfreude, esoteric, lionize, dispositive, capricious, bibulous and 129 more...
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#1
Words I Like
abide, sashay, microbial, scented, nature, amorphous, unknown, imagine, photogenic, soft, silken, history and 188 more...
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Nabokov vocabulary
verisimilitude, geminate, pedantic, intervestibular, equilibrist, nictitating, anastomosis, quiddity, torus, cacahuete, undulation, pensum and 135 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for undulate.

mollusque A wavy word, with "d", "l" and "t" rising above the surface. Dec 1, 2007