pendulum

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) Used to refer to 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.

Related terms

• Foucault’s pendulum
• 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) 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 (degüǰiŋ) 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

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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)