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Glite Dictionary
😟 To unsettle 🔬 To disrupt ⚖️ To disturb order
to perturb

to perturb

2 7.6
To make something move away from its normal path, often by a small force
  • verb
  • /pərˈtɜrb/
  • Specialized
translation icon : alterar
  • The cycles of sulfur, carbon, and nitrogen are being severely perturbed by humanity's massive energy consumption.
  • severely perturbed
  • perturbed system
  • movement was perturbed

If you look at this system, I perturb this, it goes back and forth, right?

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Examples

  • A variety of environmental insults can perturb microbiota structure (dysbiosis), altering immune expression, producing oxidative damage, and causing host inflammation.

    Academic text (2018)

  • The method of instrumentation should also be designed so that it does not perturb the system under test.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Suppose I go back to my original problem, which is this, and suppose I perturb the zero.

  • If you look at this system, I perturb this, it goes back and forth, right?

    MIT OpenCourseWare

  • So Phil Ivy likes to perturb the system, like mess with it to see what comes out.

    Lex Fridman

  • Now, the Hamiltonian shows us... ...that the energy levels are perturbed by the electric field.

    Spider-Man 3 (2007)

  • Humanity has become a major force in perturbing ecosystem dynamics at multiple scales.

    Academic text (2006)

  • The investigators simultaneously perturbed both ocean temperatures and initial soil moisture conditions in a manner consistent with observations.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Interventions that perturb our microbiome change the risk of atopies, autoimmune disease and obesity.

  • Changing the temperature in the experiment can perturb the results significantly.

Synonyms

to disrupt
vsto perturb
269 4.4

To interrupt normal activity and cause disorder

is used mainly in scientific contexts to mean altering a system's normal state
to disturb
vsto perturb
97 2.1

Move something and make it untidy or broken

is broader and used in science to mean altering a system's path or state

Antonyms

to maintain
931 3.1

Keep an activity, quality, or schedule going over time

to stabilize
  • US
75 4.3

To become steady and stop changing

How Disrupted

to derail
64 4.6
to disrupt
269 4.4
to perturb
  • Specialized
2 7.6
to disturb
183 2.1
to alter
493 2.5
to nudge
33 3.8

Surface Forms

perturb infinitive
perturbed past
perturbed past participle
perturbing present participle
perturbs third person singular

Etymology

The word perturb comes from the Latin parts per- 'completely' and turbare 'to disturb', the same root behind turbulent. So in science, to perturb an orbit or path is to 'disturb' it and change its normal course.