pendulum

English

Etymology

Borrowed from the neuter of Latin pendulus (“hanging”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛnd͡ʒələm/
• US (some regions): IPA^(key): /ˈpɪnd͡ʒələm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

pendulum (plural pendulums or pendula) (See usage notes.)

1. (clocks, mechanics) A body suspended from a fixed support so that it swings freely back and forth under the influence of gravity, commonly used to regulate various devices such as clocks.
   1. (by extension) The tendency of a situation to oscillate (between two extremes).
      • 2021 October 20, Industry Insider, “The wheels turn slowly”, in RAIL, number 942, page 68:

        The pendulum can be seen to be swinging in favour of rail, as with each issue of RAIL comes news of further intermodal service expansion.

2. A lamp, etc. suspended from a ceiling.
3. A watch's guard-ring by which it is attached to a chain.

Usage notes

• The plural form pendula is significantly rarer than pendulums; see etymology at pendula for details. However, pendula is occasionally used in physics.

Derived terms

• ballistic pendulum
• compensation pendulum
• compound pendulum
• double pendulum
• Foucault pendulum
• Foucault's pendulum
• invariable pendulum
• Kater's pendulum
• pendulum arbitration
• pendulum clock
• pendulum saw
• pendulum wire
• play pendulum
• Schuler pendulum
• simple pendulum
• torsion pendulum
• Wilberforce pendulum

 

Related terms

• pendant

Translations

body suspended from a fixed support

• Albanian: lavjerrës (sq) m
• Arabic: نُوَاس m (nuwās), رَقَّاص m (raqqāṣ), بَنْدُول m (bandūl)
• Armenian: ճոճանակ (hy) (čočanak)
• Azerbaijani: kəfgir (az)
• Basque: pendulu
• Belarusian: ма́ятнік m (májatnik)
• Bulgarian: маха́ло (bg) n (mahálo)
• Burmese: ချိန်သီး (my) (hkyinsi:)
• Catalan: pèndol (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鐘擺／钟摆 (zh) (zhōngbǎi), 擺／摆 (zh) (bǎi), 擺鐘／摆钟 (zh) (bǎizhōng)

• Czech: kyvadlo (cs) n
• Danish: pendul (da) c
• Dutch: slinger (nl) c
• Esperanto: pendolo
• Estonian: pendel
• Finnish: heiluri (fi)
• French: pendule (fr) m
• Galician: péndulo m
• Georgian: ქანქარა (kankara)
• German: Pendel (de) n
• Greek: εκκρεμές (el) n (ekkremés)
• Hebrew: מְטוּטֶלֶת (he) f (metutelet)
• Hindi: लोलक (hi) m (lolak), दोलक m (dolak), लंगर (hi) m (laṅgar)
• Hungarian: inga (hu)
• Icelandic: pendúll m, dingull m, hengill m, kólfur (is) m
• Ido: pendulo (io)
• Indonesian: bandul (id)
• Italian: pendolo (it) m
• Japanese: 振り子 (ja) (ふりこ, furiko)
• Kazakh: маятник (maätnik)
• Khmer: បណ្ដូន (bɑndoun), ប៉ោល (km) (paol)
• Korean: 진자(振子) (ko) (jinja)
• Kyrgyz: маятник (mayatnik)
• Lao: ໝາກກະໂຕ້ນ (māk ka tōn)
• Latin: pendulum n
• Latvian: svārsts m
• Lithuanian: švytuoklė f, svyruoklė f
• Macedonian: нишало n (nišalo)
• Malay: bandul
• Maori: tārere
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: дүүжин (mn) (düüžin)

  Mongolian: ᠳᠡᠭᠦᠵᠢᠩ (degüǰing)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pendel (no) m

• Persian: آونگ (fa) (âvang), پاندول (fa) (pândul)
• Polish: wahadło (pl) n
• Portuguese: pêndulo (pt) m
• Romanian: pendul (ro) n
• Russian: ма́ятник (ru) m (májatnik)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кла́тно n

  Roman: klátno (sh) n

• Slovak: kyvadlo n
• Slovene: nihalo (sl) n
• Spanish: péndulo (es) m
• Swedish: pendel (sv) c
• Tajik: раққосак (raqqosak), ованг (ovang)
• Thai: ลูกตุ้ม (lûuk-dtûm)
• Turkish: sarkaç (tr), rakkas (tr), pandül (tr)
• Turkmen: maýatnik
• Ukrainian: ма́ятник m (májatnyk), вага́дло (uk) n (vahádlo)
• Uyghur: ماياتنىك (mayatnik)
• Uzbek: mayatnik (uz)
• Vietnamese: quả lắc (vi), con lắc
• Volapük: pendül (vo)

See also

• simple harmonic motion

References

• “pendulum”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• unplumed

Latin

Adjective

pendulum

1. inflection of pendulus:
   1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
   2. accusative masculine singular

References

• pendulum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)