nutation
1
9.9
- noun
- /njuˈteɪʃən/
- Specialized
- The patient's nutation caused her head to nod involuntarily during the examination.
Examples
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Doctors noted that his nutation was a symptom of a neurological disorder.
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Due to the effects of nutation, he experienced uncontrollable movements of his head.
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The very thing that makes our seasons, the tilt of the earth, is also subject to change, with a known nutation of 18.6 years.
Blog text (10) -
I don't expect my students to memorize the constant of nutation.
Academic text (1996) -
This is the so-called nutation period of the Moon and introduces a small periodic variation in the precessional motion of the axis of Earth.
Academic text (2004) -
Place of Star: RA/Dec of a star for a given date taking into account proper motion, precession, aberration, and nutation (you enter star data).
Academic text (1991) -
Darwin's anthropomorphized flowers thereby enact botanical nutation, the slight curving or circular "motion" in which they quit "their perpendicular direction, present their surface directly to the sun.
Academic text (2017) -
Marking or watching environmental signals of time's daily progress, Darwin's plants trace the motions of the sun and stars in a cosmological mechanism known as nutation, possessing astronomical, botanical, and mechanical connotations.
Academic text (2017)
Antonyms
How Much
Surface Forms
Etymology
Nutation comes from the Latin verb nutare, which means 'to nod' or 'to sway'. So, nutation describes a nodding or involuntary head movement — like a small, uncontrolled 'nod'.