gravitational wave

noun

: a disturbance in space-time in the form of a wave that propagates the gravitational field

Gravitational waves are a natural offshoot of the rubber-sheet construction of general relativity. Just as a massive object sitting on the fabric of spacetime creates a dimple, so moving or changing objects, under certain conditions, create wrinkles in the fabric. Those wrinkles, tiny distortions in spacetime, zoom away at the speed of light. Because these gravitational waves carry energy, anything emitting them will lose a tiny bit of its speed.

—Science

Examples of gravitational wave in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Since its official founding in 1920 as a successor to Pasadena’s Throop University, the campus has served as a breeding ground for Nobel Prize winners and an incubator for historic innovations, among them the Richter scale, antiretroviral therapies, and the discovery of gravitational waves. —Mayer Rus, Architectural Digest, 5 Feb. 2026

This causes a blast of high-energy radiation called a gamma-ray burst (GRB), a final screech of gravitational waves, and sends out a spray of neutron-rich matter, which allows a process to occur that generates very heavy but unstable elements. —Robert Lea, Space.com, 4 Feb. 2026

In 2017, a kilonova sent light and gravitational waves across the Universe. —Big Think, 29 Jan. 2026

All that energy is emitted in invisible gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of the universe. —Phil Plait, Scientific American, 22 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1906, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for gravitational wave

• aftershave
• architrave
• autoclave
• microwave
• misbehave
• agave
• behave
• concave
• conclave
• enclave
• engrave
• enslave