Dictionary

wavelet en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From wave + -let; a calque of French ondelette, from onde (“wave”) + -ette (diminutive suffix).

Meanings

1. A small wave; a ripple.
   • The water danced and sparkled, multitudes of birds were on the wing, now dipping in the wavelets, now rising and shaking off the glittering drops. 1880, Sabine Baring-Gould, chapter 4, in Mehalah: A Story of the Salt Marshes, London: Smith, Elder & Co., published 1884, page 46:
   • 1856, Herman Melville, “The Piazza” in The Piazza Tales, New York: Dix & Edwards, pp. 6-7, […] long ground-swells roll the slanting grain, and little wavelets of grass ripple over upon the low piazza, as their beach, and the blown down of dandelions is wafted like the spray […]
   • They left the shop in a united wavelet of amusement […] 1965, Muriel Spark, chapter 3, in The Mandelbaum Gate, London: Macmillan:
   • 1851, “Speaker’s Meaning dimly descried” (Fragment) in Poems, London: William Pickering, p. 110, I know not whether I see your meaning: if I do, it lies Upon the wordy wavelets of your voice, Dim as an evening shadow in a brook, When the least moon has silver on’t no larger Than the pure white of Hebe’s nail.
   • Attractive cottages look out on a scene so peaceful that lapping wavelets, stirred by the breeze, are often the loudest sound to be heard. 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 220, about Hanmer, Wales:
   • They sat on the beach and watched the hissing wavelets. 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 35:
   • A little, rubbishy wavelet, full of candy wrappers and orange peel and seaweed, folded over my foot. 1963, Sylvia Plath, chapter 13, in The Bell Jar, London: Faber & Faber, published 1971:
2. A fast-decaying oscillation.

Forms

Deriveds

multiwavelet · discrete wavelet transform · wavelet packet decomposition · Gabor wavelet · wavelet matrix · Haar wavelet · symlet · wavelet series · wavelet modulation · waveleted · continuous wavelet transform · biwavelet · wavelet compression · Morlet wavelet · Daubechies wavelet

Descendants

웨이블릿 · ве́йвлет · Wavelet

Translations (30)

pl falka (a fast-decaying oscillation) · hu hullámocska (a small wave; a ripple) · fi kare (a small wave; a ripple) · cy tonnell (a fast-decaying oscillation) · fi aalloke (a fast-decaying oscillation) · it wavelet (a fast-decaying oscillation) · ru ве́йвлет (a fast-decaying oscillation) · fr ondelette (a fast-decaying oscillation) · eu uhinxka (a fast-decaying oscillation) · ru зыбь (a small wave; a ripple) · gv tonnane (a small wave; a ripple) · bg вълничка (a small wave; a ripple) · ga druga (a small wave; a ripple) · ru рябь (a small wave; a ripple) · uk бри́жі (a small wave; a ripple) · el κυματίδιο (a fast-decaying oscillation) · fi liplatus (a small wave; a ripple) · bg затихваща осцилация (a fast-decaying oscillation) · cs vlnka (a fast-decaying oscillation) · eo ondeto (a small wave; a ripple) · cmn 小波 (a fast-decaying oscillation) · de Wellchen (a small wave; a ripple) · ko 웨이블릿 (a fast-decaying oscillation) · es perturbación (a small wave; a ripple) · de Wavelet (a fast-decaying oscillation) · uk ве́йвлет (a fast-decaying oscillation) · cmn 小浪 (a small wave; a ripple) · ca ondeta (a fast-decaying oscillation) · fr vaguelette (a small wave; a ripple) · ca ondulació (a small wave; a ripple)