wavelength

UK/ˈweɪvlɛŋ(k)θ/US/ˈweɪvˌlɛŋ(k)θ/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,909 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: wavelengths

A wavelength is the distance from one wave's crest to the next. A short wavelength, the wavelength of red light, on the same wavelength.

It decides colour in light and pitch in sound, and it is inversely tied to frequency: shorter wavelength, higher frequency. On the same wavelength, meaning in easy agreement, comes from radio and is now much commoner than the physics.

Definitions of wavelength

1nounwavelengthThe distance from one wave's crest to the next.B2+
“Red light has a longer wavelength than blue light.”

wavelength is a measurement.

Where it comes from

Wave plus length, coined in nineteenth-century physics as the wave theory of light took hold.

From wave + length.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Science & Space

Practise this word

wavelength in the wild

Longer-wavelength radiation such as visible light is non-ionizing; the photons do not have sufficient energy to ionize atoms.
Electromagnetic spectrum
Longer IR wavelengths are sometimes included as part of the terahertz radiation band.
Infrared
In physics and mathematics, wavelength or spatial period of a wave or periodic function is the distance over which the wave's shape repeats.
Wavelength
The inverse of the wavelength is called the spatial frequency.
Wavelength
Colors containing only one wavelength are also called pure colors or spectral colors.
Visible spectrum

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

on the same wavelength

← Vocabulary