Wavelet

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small wave; a ripple.

    "1851, “Speaker’s Meaning dimly descried” (Fragment) in Poems, London: William Pickering, p. 110, I know not whether I see your meaning: if I do, it lies Upon the wordy wavelets of your voice, Dim as an evening shadow in a brook, When the least moon has silver on’t no larger Than the pure white of Hebe’s nail."

  2. 2
    a small wave on the surface of a liquid wordnet
  3. 3
    A fast-decaying oscillation.

Synonyms

All synonyms
billowborebreakerchopground swellheave

Example

More examples

"1851, “Speaker’s Meaning dimly descried” (Fragment) in Poems, London: William Pickering, p. 110, I know not whether I see your meaning: if I do, it lies Upon the wordy wavelets of your voice, Dim as an evening shadow in a brook, When the least moon has silver on’t no larger Than the pure white of Hebe’s nail."

Etymology

From wave + -let; a calque of French ondelette, from onde (“wave”) + -ette (diminutive suffix).

Related phrases

Daubechies waveletGabor waveletHaar waveletMorlet waveletwavelet compressionwavelet matrixwavelet modulationwavelet packet decompositionwavelet series

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