Synonyms of oscillating

oscillating

verb

present participle of oscillate

1

as in fluctuating

to move back and forth in a rhythmic manner

When a guitar string is plucked, it oscillates to produce sound waves in the air.

Related Words

• fluctuating
• shaking
• rolling
• undulating
• rocking
• flickering
• pitching
• swinging
• swaying
• vibrating
• lurching
• wagging
• waggling
• wobbling
• fluttering
• tossing
• careening
• seesawing
• vacillating
• wavering
• staggering
• weaving
• jolting
• tumbling
• reeling
• jerking
• tottering
• faltering
• floundering
• halting
• waddling
• bucking
• blundering
• stumbling
• teetering
• hobbling
• hitching
• toddling
• doddering

2

as in alternating

to continuously change from one belief, feeling, or condition to an opposite one

The model's hair color oscillates between bleach blond and jet black.

Related Words

• alternating
• swinging
• fluctuating
• swaying
• balancing
• seesawing
• flip-flopping
• vacillating
• yo-yoing
• wavering
• hawing
• wobbling
• staggering
• dithering
• hesitating
• hemming
• faltering
• halting
• hanging back
• weighing
• teetering
• pondering
• scrupling
• debating
• deliberating
• considering
• waffling
• hedging
• equivocating
• shilly-shallying
• pussyfooting

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of oscillating

How to Change the Grout in Your Shower Start your refresh by removing the old grout with grout removal tools like a grout saw or an oscillating tool equipped with a grout removal blade. — Michelle Mastro, The Spruce, 20 Sep. 2026

After the oscillating light and dark, after the speeding forward, after the commuting or praying or both, this moment seems to hold an extra teaching. — Ben Corn, Christian Science Monitor, 19 Sep. 2026

Oil prices have been on a rollercoaster this year, oscillating as traders react to flare-ups in fighting and monitor oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. — John Towfighi, CNN Money, 9 Sep. 2026

Instead of oscillating between performance and people, leaders can learn to integrate these two seemingly opposing forces into a single approach to transformational leadership. — Michael Corvini, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2026

Joyful noise and other, impolite sounds radiated from the sets oscillating between the two sites. — Lauren Michele Jackson, New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2026

Sound waves excite the air in the cavities, forcing out the oscillating air to generate thrust. — ArsTechnica, 1 Sep. 2026

Those include point absorbers, oscillating water columns and attenuators. — ABC News, 26 Aug. 2026

The show then veers back to early work, photographic transparencies with magazine transfers made in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, and continues, gallery by gallery, oscillating between different periods of the artist’s nearly six-decade career. — Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug. 2026