excitation

ex·ci·ta·tion | \ ˌek-ˌsī-ˈtā-shən

How to pronounce excitation (audio)

, ˌek-sə-\

Definition of excitation

: excitement especially : the disturbed or altered condition resulting from stimulation of an individual, organ, tissue, or cell

Examples of excitation in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web In certain phases, [quantum] excitations generally behave like new emergent particles. — Quanta Magazine, "Taming Superconductors With String Theory," 21 Jan. 2016 Inside, excitations with unfamiliar pets seem canine jubilation itself. — Alison Rose, Town & Country, "Park Avenue's Pet Whisperer," 3 Sep. 2014 In this process, called luminance, the metal absorbs energy from the explosion, something called excitation, emitting a color of light specific to that metal. — Kevin Davenport, idahostatesman, "O say can you see? The science behind the booms and blooms of Independence Day fireworks," 3 July 2018 According to this theory, each fundamental subatomic particle corresponds to an excitation of a string, analogous to a musical note played on a guitar. — Graham Farmelo, WSJ, "‘Lost in Math’ Review: The Beauty Myth," 22 June 2018 A few years after his work with Dr. Bardeen, Dr. Pines collaborated with two other physicists, Aage Niels Bohr and Ben Roy Mottelson, on a paper describing excitations in nuclei. — New York Times, "David Pines, 93, Insightful and Influential Physicist, Dies," 11 May 2018 As part of the DAMA/LIBRA-phase 2 upgrade, the team at Gran Sasso switched out hardware to make their detectors sensitive to lower-energy excitations inside the sodium iodide crystals. — Natalie Wolchover, WIRED, "Trouble Detected in Infamous Dark Matter Signal," 18 Apr. 2018 Intense snoring correlates with the serious medical condition of obstructive sleep apnea, plaguing one in 15 adults in the U.S. To an engineer, the flutter phenomenon is known as a self-excitation. — Justin Webster, Scientific American, "Harnessing the Invisible Power of “Flutter”," 31 Mar. 2018 With excitation, cells fire, transmitting information and signals. — Debra Kamin, Newsweek, "Is Marijuana the World’s Most Effective Treatment for Autism?," 15 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'excitation.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about excitation

Dictionary Entries near excitation

Statistics for excitation

Cite this Entry

“Excitation.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/excitation. Accessed 5 December 2019.

Keep scrolling for more

Keep scrolling for more

WORD OF THE DAY

acquiesce

to accept, comply, or submit

Test Your Vocabulary

Semantic Drift Quiz

Which of the following was once a synonym for fun?

dutch pear
golf hoax

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.