sound wave
20
3.5
- noun
- /saʊnd weɪv/
- Specialized
:
onda sonora
- When a person speaks, their voice creates sound waves that travel through the air to reach the listener's ears.
- sound waves travel
- sound waves, frequency
- objects using sound waves
I've got this app that shows you sound waves live.
- I've got this app that shows you sound waves live.
- But yeah, like we cannot hear these sound waves with our ears.
- Is it possible to convert sound waves into an energy source?
- There are very powerful devices for allowing us to capture sound waves from our environment.
- And that wiffly noise is a sound wave.
- If we could do the same with sound waves rather than light, that could have many applications.
- What it actually is is reverb, and it's caused by a standing sound wave that is bouncing back and forth inside the room.
- So this is a sort of a breaking field in modern day chemistry where they're using sound waves to catalyze chemical reactions.
- And so seismologists blow off charges and use earthquakes to sample the crust by sending sound waves through.
- The headphones record the sound that's coming in, completely invert that sound wave and add them together so that they cancel each other out.
- It's a Clarisonic scrubber and it uses sound waves to break up the top layer of, of skin and exfoliate your face.
- They record that sound, invert the wave, and then play that sound wave into your ear at the same time so the two cancel out and you don't hear anything.
Examples
-
As mentioned earlier, sound waves travel at a very predictable rate of approximately 1,126 feet per second.
Academic text (2007) -
Well, here as an example with air, we have sound waves and the sound waves are just compression waves, pressure waves.
-
Is it possible to convert sound waves into an energy source?
-
There are very powerful devices for allowing us to capture sound waves from our environment.
-
Sounds made as we speak literally create sound waves of air pressure.
Academic text (2007) -
We should also mention that water is an extremely good conductor of sound waves.
Academic text (2007) -
Researchers in the United States and Denmark have for the first time seen how sound waves spread in crystals.
-
The density of water transmits sound waves better and faster than sounds conveyed by air.
Fiction book (2002) -
The transmission of sound waves can be dramatically demonstrated using a metal Slinky toy.
Academic text (2004) -
You're hitting a pitch with sound waves that have the same resonant frequency as the glass.
Synonyms
1
4.5
A wave that carries sound through air, water, or a solid by vibrations
1
3.4
A wave of moving air that carries sound
How Strong
- Specialized
20
3.5
1
5.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning ('a wave by which sound is transmitted') is directly and compositionally derived from 'sound' (auditory vibration) + 'wave' (a propagating disturbance). This noun–noun compound follows a transparent modifier+head pattern common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the term.
Etymology
Sound wave puts together sound and wave, so imagine a ripple moving through the air that carries a vibration to your ear. That's why it means 'a wave that carries sound' and refers to vibrations moving through air, water, or solid objects.