Meaning & use
corrugation
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A pattern of parallel ridges and grooves formed in a surface, or one of these raised folds.
Grammar: Countable when you mean individual ridges ('a deep corrugation'), uncountable when you mean the pattern or texture ('the corrugation of the metal').
Patterns
- the corrugation of something
- corrugation in something
- a series of corrugations
The roof is made of iron with deep corrugations that carry rainwater away.
You can feel the corrugation of the cardboard if you run a finger along the edge.
Engineers added corrugation to the panel so it would bend without cracking.
noununcountabletechnical
The act or process of shaping a material into parallel ridges and grooves.
Grammar: Uncountable; often used in technical writing about how a material is made, and commonly followed by 'of'.
Patterns
- the corrugation of something
- corrugation by machine
Corrugation of the steel sheet is done between heated rollers.
The factory specializes in the corrugation of thin aluminium.
Word forms
| plural | corrugations |
|---|
Common combinations
- corrugated iron
- The shed in the garden is built from corrugated iron.
- corrugated cardboard
- Pack the glasses in corrugated cardboard before you move them.
- deep corrugations
- Deep corrugations in the road made the drive uncomfortable.
- the corrugation of a surface
- The corrugation of the surface helps water run off quickly.
- corrugated roof
- Rain hammered on the corrugated roof all night.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ridge
- Use ridge for a single raised line; corrugation usually suggests a whole repeated set of ridges and grooves.
- groove
- A groove is the hollow part only, while corrugation can refer to the raised parts or the whole wavy pattern.
- wrinkle
- Wrinkle is for small, irregular creases in skin or cloth, not the regular machine-made folds of corrugation.
Opposites
Word family
- corrugated adjective
- Having parallel ridges and grooves, as in corrugated metal.
- corrugate verb
- To shape a material into ridges and grooves.
- corrugated iron noun
- A building material made of thin iron or steel pressed into wavy sheets.
Commonly confused: corrugation or corrugated? corrugation or corrugator?
corrugation vs corrugated
Corrugated is the adjective describing a surface; corrugation is the noun for the ridges or the process.
corrugation vs corrugator
A corrugator is a machine or worker that makes corrugations, not the pattern itself.
Practice
Which sentence uses corrugation correctly?
Choose one answer.
'The corrugation of the metal' correctly uses the noun for the process or pattern. Option 2 uses it as a verb, option 3 puts a noun where a verb is needed, and option 4 wrongly treats it as a word for a person.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “corrugation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.