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. 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.
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

• Arabic: نواس
• Armenian: ճոճանակ (hy) (čočanak)
• Basque: pendulu
• Catalan: pèndol m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鐘擺／钟摆 (zh) (zhōngbǎi), 钟摆 (zh) (zhōngbǎi), 擺／摆 (zh) (bǎi), 摆 (zh) (bǎi), 擺鐘／摆钟 (zh) (bǎizhōng), 摆钟 (zh) (bǎizhōng)

• Czech: kyvadlo (cs) n
• Dutch: slinger (nl) c
• Esperanto: pendolo
• Finnish: heiluri (fi)
• French: pendule (fr) m
• Galician: péndulo m
• Georgian: ქანქარა (kankara)
• German: Pendel (de) n
• Greek: εκκρεμές (el) n (ekkremés)
• Hungarian: inga (hu)
• Icelandic: pendúll m, dingull m, hengill m, kólfur (is) m
• Ido: pendulo (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: pendolo (it) m
• Japanese: 振り子 (ja) (ふりこ, furiko)
• Macedonian: нишало n (nišalo)
• Malay: bandul
• Maori: tārere
• Norwegian: pendel (no) m
• Polish: wahadło (pl) n
• Portuguese: pêndulo (pt) m
• Romanian: pendul (ro) n
• Russian: ма́ятник (ru) m (májatnik)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: клатно n

  Roman: klatno (sh) n

• Slovak: kyvadlo n
• Spanish: péndulo (es) m
• Swedish: pendel (sv) c
• Turkish: sarkaç (tr), rakkas (tr), pandül (tr)
• Volapük: pendül (vo)

See also

• simple harmonic motion

Anagrams

• unplumed

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Latin

Adjective

(deprecated template usage) pendulum

1. nominative neuter singular of pendulus
2. accusative masculine singular of pendulus
3. accusative neuter singular of pendulus
4. vocative neuter singular of pendulus

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)