Meaning & use
vibration
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A quick, repeated shaking or trembling movement, or the feeling of it.
Grammar: Countable for a single movement and uncountable for the general shaking: feel a vibration; reduce vibration.
Patterns
- the vibration of something
- a vibration from something
I felt a vibration in my pocket as the phone rang.
The vibration of the washing machine shook the floor.
Heavy trucks cause vibration in old buildings.
nouncountable or uncountablephysicstechnical
In physics, a back-and-forth movement of particles or an object around a fixed point that produces sound.
Grammar: Technical use: vibrations of a string, the vibration of air.
Patterns
- the vibration of a string
- the frequency of a vibration
Sound is produced by the vibration of air.
The vibrations of the guitar string become sound.
Scientists measured the frequency of the vibration.
nounusually pluralinformal
The mood or feeling that a person or place gives, usually used in the plural.
Grammar: Informal and usually plural: good vibrations, a good vibe.
Patterns
- good vibrations
- pick up vibrations
The cafe has good vibrations and a relaxed crowd.
I picked up bad vibrations from the room.
They felt the positive vibrations of the festival.
Word forms
| plural | vibrations |
|---|
Common combinations
- a strong vibration
- A strong vibration shook the glass.
- reduce vibration
- Rubber feet reduce vibration from the engine.
- feel a vibration
- You may feel a vibration in the handlebars.
- cause vibration
- Loud bass can cause vibration in the walls.
- vibration sensor
- A vibration sensor warned of the machine's fault.
- vibration mode
- I turned my phone to vibration mode in the meeting.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tremor
- Tremor suggests a small, often involuntary shake, like in earthquakes or hands.
- oscillation
- Oscillation is a more technical word for regular swinging back and forth.
- shaking
- Shaking is a general everyday word and may be slow or irregular, while vibration is rapid and repeated.
- quiver
- Quiver describes a slight, trembling movement, often of the voice or body.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: vibration or vibe?
vibration vs vibe
Vibe is an informal word for the general mood of a place or person, while vibration in science means actual shaking.
Practice
Which sentence uses vibration in its scientific sense?
Choose one answer.
In physics, a vibration is the back-and-forth movement that produces sound, such as a string. The other sentences use it with things that cannot vibrate in this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “vibration”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.