pendulum

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

pendulum

Wikipedia

Etymology

Borrowed from the neuter of Latin pendulus (“hanging”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛnd͡ʒələm/
• US (some regions): IPA^(key): /ˈpɪnd͡ʒələm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

pendulum (plural pendulums or pendula) (See usage notes.)

1. (clocks, mechanics) A body suspended from a fixed support so that it swings freely back and forth under the influence of gravity, commonly used to regulate various devices such as clocks.
   1. (by extension) The tendency of a situation to oscillate (between two extremes).
      • 2021 October 20, Industry Insider, “The wheels turn slowly”, in RAIL, number 942, page 68:

        The pendulum can be seen to be swinging in favour of rail, as with each issue of RAIL comes news of further intermodal service expansion.

2. A lamp, etc. suspended from a ceiling.
3. A watch's guard-ring by which it is attached to a chain.

Usage notes

• The plural form pendula is significantly rarer than pendulums; see etymology at pendula for details. However, pendula is occasionally used in physics.

Derived terms

• archipendulum
• ballistic pendulum
• compensation pendulum
• compound pendulum
• double pendulum
• Foucault pendulum
• Foucault's pendulum
• invariable pendulum
• Kater's pendulum
• pendulum arbitration
• pendulum clock
• pendulumlike
• pendulum reading
• pendulum saw
• pendulum wire
• play pendulum
• Schuler pendulum
• simple pendulum
• torsion pendulum
• Wilberforce pendulum

Related terms

• pendant

Translations

body suspended from a fixed support

Albanian: lavjerrës (sq) m Arabic: نُوَاس m (nuwās), رَقَّاص m (raqqāṣ), بَنْدُول m (bandūl) Armenian: ճոճանակ (hy) (čočanak) Azerbaijani: kəfgir (az) Basque: pendulu Belarusian: ма́ятнік m (májatnik) Bulgarian: маха́ло (bg) n (mahálo) Burmese: ချိန်သီး (my) (hkyinsi:) Catalan: pèndol (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 鐘擺 / 钟摆 (zh) (zhōngbǎi), 擺 / 摆 (zh) (bǎi), 擺鐘 / 摆钟 (zh) (bǎizhōng) Czech: kyvadlo (cs) n Danish: pendul (da) c Dutch: slinger (nl) c Esperanto: pendolo Estonian: pendel Finnish: heiluri (fi) French: pendule (fr) m Galician: péndulo m Georgian: ქანქარა (kankara) German: Pendel (de) n Greek: εκκρεμές (el) n (ekkremés) Hebrew: מְטוּטֶלֶת (he) f (metutelet) Hindi: लोलक (hi) m (lolak), दोलक m (dolak), लंगर (hi) m (laṅgar) Hungarian: inga (hu) Icelandic: pendúll m, dingull m, hengill m, kólfur (is) m Ido: pendulo (io) Indonesian: bandul (id) Italian: pendolo (it) m Japanese: 振り子 (ja) (ふりこ, furiko) Kazakh: маятник (maätnik) Khmer: បណ្ដូន (bɑndoun), ប៉ោល (km) (paol) Korean: 진자(振子) (ko) (jinja) Kyrgyz: маятник (mayatnik) Lao: ໝາກກະໂຕ້ນ (māk ka tōn) Latin: pendulum n Latvian: svārsts m Lithuanian: švytuoklė f, svyruoklė f Macedonian: нишало n (nišalo) Malay: bandul (ms) Maori: tārere Mongolian: Cyrillic: дүүжин (mn) (düüžin) Mongolian: ᠳᠡᠭᠦᠵᠢᠩ (degüǰing) Norwegian: Bokmål: pendel (no) m Ottoman Turkish: رقاص (rakkas) Persian: آونگ (fa) (âvang), پاندول (fa) (pândul), رقاصک (fa) (raqqâsak) Polish: wahadło (pl) n Portuguese: pêndulo (pt) m Romanian: pendul (ro) n Russian: ма́ятник (ru) m (májatnik) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: кла́тно n Roman: klátno (sh) n Slovak: kyvadlo n Slovene: nihalo (sl) n Spanish: péndulo (es) m Swedish: pendel (sv) c Tajik: раққосак (raqqosak), ованг (ovang) Thai: ลูกตุ้ม (lûuk-dtûm) Turkish: sarkaç (tr), rakkas (tr), pandül (tr) Turkmen: maýatnik Ukrainian: ма́ятник m (májatnyk), вага́дло (uk) n (vahádlo) Uyghur: ماياتنىك (mayatnik) Uzbek: mayatnik (uz) Vietnamese: quả lắc (vi), con lắc Volapük: pendül (vo)

See also

• simple harmonic motion

References

• “pendulum”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• unplumed

Latin

Adjective

pendulum

1. inflection of pendulus:
   1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
   2. accusative masculine singular

References

• "pendulum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)