Nutate

verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To rock or sway involuntarily. intransitive
  2. 2
    rock, sway, or nod; usually involuntarily wordnet
  3. 3
    To wobble; to make a circular rocking motion. intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
bobbobblecareencoggledanglefluctuate

Etymology

First attested in 1880; back-formation from nutation (1610s) on the basis of -ate (verb-forming suffix), from Latin nūtātiō (“a nodding”), from nūtō (“to nod”), from Proto-Indo-European *neu-. Compare mutate.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.