Make Your Point: UNDULATE

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pronounce UNDULATE:

UN djuh late

connect this word to others:

As we check out the graceful word undulate, which is related to words like abound and surround, see if you can recall two more closely related words:

1. To overwhelm, like an overflowing river, is to __und___.

2. To be unnecessarily repetitive, as if rising again and again in waves, is to be ___und___.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

In Latin, unda means "wave," and undula means "little wave." Undula made its way into English by the 1600s as "undulate," meaning "to wave, or to move in a wave."

That's still how we use it today. In other words, to undulate is to move like waves in water: to move up and down or side to side, or to ripple.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, usually the intransitive kind: "The road undulates;" "The landscape seemed to undulate."

Other forms:

The other verb forms are "undulated" and "undulating."

"Undulating" is also handy as an adjective: "these undulating roads," "the undulating landscape."

The noun is "undulation," and it can be both the countable kind ("We watched the snake's undulations") and the uncountable kind ("We watched its undulation").

The adjective is "undulant," pronounced "UN djuh lunt." Hear it here.

how to use it:

Pick the semi-common word "undulate" (instead of "wave," "wiggle," or "ripple") when you want to sound serious and poetic.

Talk about things or people that literally undulate, often snakes or bodies of water: "I watched the undulating surface on the pool" (Andrew Smith); "The sea had deepened into a rolling, undulating green" (Nizrana Farook); "In the firelight, Miss Miss seemed to undulate in some ancient dance" (Libba Bray).

Or, talk about things that figuratively undulate: "The hills undulated as we drove past;" "The TV room undulated with kids trying to find and haul away their stuff" (John Green).

examples:

"I sat in the back and tried not to throw up as Stephen Kellner navigated the undulating roads at unsafe velocities."
— Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay, 2018

"But as the scenery grows, I see in different lights.
The shades and shadows undulate in my perception."
— Fiona Apple, "Never is a Promise," 1996

has this page helped you understand "undulate"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "undulate" without saying "billow" or "ripple."

try it out:

If a room is so packed with people in motion that the whole place seems to move like waves on the ocean, you could say that the room is undulating. That is, if you want to sound poetic, or just intense.

Here's an example from Neal Shusterman's Scythe: "Rowan was immediately assaulted by loud dance music. There were people everywhere, reveling as if it were New Year's Eve. The whole estate seemed to undulate in the throes of the relentless beat."

When was the last time you were in a place that seemed to be undulating with people? Would the poetic word "undulate" be a good one for that situation, or not? Why?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is Make Your Point Before & After!

I'll give you a clue, and you give me a verbal mashup including at least one word or phrase we've studied before.

For example, if I give you "It's the kind of theatrical stage setting that encourages the actors to radically overact," then you give me "mise en scenery chewing," a mashup of "mise en scene" and "scenery chewing."

Try this one today: It's the desperate fear of missing out on a live performance of songs like "High Hopes" and "I Write Sins Not Tragedies."

To reveal the first two hints, highlight the hidden white text.

Hint 1: The number of words in this Before & After is... four.

Hint 2: The first word in this Before & After is... too big of a hint, but the first letters are TOR.

Hint 3: Use this term.

To see the answer, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. A near opposite of UNDULATE is

A. DULATE.
B. DRAW STRENGTH.
C. MAKE A BEELINE.

2. In The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill wrote, a bit redundantly, "They scattered and gathered; they swirled into great whirlwinds; they undulated across the room in _____."

A. fits
B. pairs
C. waves

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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