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

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

The more constructive comparison is early 2023, when ADBE spent several weeks oscillating around the line before reclaiming it and beginning a strong advance. — Frank Cappelleri, CNBC, 5 Aug. 2026

Maybe even worse in the upper setting, which had my head oscillating like a bobblehead on a Baja trophy truck. — New Atlas, 21 July 2026

Each cluster contained a simple RLC resonator — a resistor, capacitor, and inductor, a combination that creates an oscillating electrical signal at a particular frequency. — Quanta Magazine, 15 July 2026

Sägesser said the team achieved the most sensitive measurement yet of an oscillating electric field inside a chip trap. — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 3 July 2026