Octavation
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Transposition by an octave.
"OCTAVATION (also called Pitch Control) — Changing the rate of tape speed over the playback head of a tape recorder changes the pitch of the signal being played back. If the speed is doubled, the signal will increase in pitch one octave."
- 2 Normalization of a numerical ratio by repeated multiplication or division by 2. rare
"It may be said that the sex question is both brain stem and pelvic stem in its fourfold octavation with its stabilizing governor, the pituitary body. These consist in coördination and correlation, the sex relation of octavation of voice and pitch."
- 3 The relationship between two planets that are distant from each other by one eighth of a great circle (45.625 degrees) rare
"This octavation will be qualified (and perhaps rendered nil) if on a day when Uranus is well aspected its octave Mercury should be adversely aspected, or vice versa."
- 4 Conversion (of the expression of a number) from denary to octal notation.
"The inverse operation, which is termed “decimation,” together with an adequate treatment for the octavation of decimal fractions will be mentioned here without consideration of the details."
Example
More examples"OCTAVATION (also called Pitch Control) — Changing the rate of tape speed over the playback head of a tape recorder changes the pitch of the signal being played back. If the speed is doubled, the signal will increase in pitch one octave."
Etymology
First attested in 1922; probably formed as octav(e) + -ation, but compare octavate.
Related phrases
More for "octavation"
Editorial Guides For "octavation"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.