Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Seesaw

Definition: Seesaw

Seesaw

Noun

1. A plaything that is ridden up and down by children at either end.

Verb

1. Ride on a plank.

2. Move up and down as if on a seesaw.

3. Move unsteadily, with a rocking motion.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "seesaw" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1859. (references)

 

Specialty Definition: Seesaw

DomainDefinition

Computing

SEESAW An early system on the IBM 701. [Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959)]. (1994-12-15). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Synonyms: Seesaw

Synonyms: teeterboard (n), teeter-totter (n), teeter (v), totter (v). (additional references)

Top     

Synonyms within Context: Seesaw

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Changeableness

Adverb: seesaw; (oscillation); off and on.

Evolution

Wave, vibratiuncle, swing, beat, shake, wag, seesaw, dance, lurch, dodge; logan, loggan, rocking-stone, vibroscope.

Adverb: to and fro, up and down, backwards and forwards, hither and yon, seesaw, zigzag, wibble-wabble, in and out, from side to side, like buckets in a well.

Irresolution

Adverb: irresolutely; Adjective: irresolved, irresolvedly; in faltering accents; off and on; from pillar to post; seesaw.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Top     

Crosswords: Seesaw

English words defined with "seesaw": OscillancySeesawad, SeesawingTetter-totter. (references)
Specialty definitions using "seesaw": ENSO. (references)
Etymologies containing "seesaw": Bascule. (references)

Top     

Modern Usage: Seesaw

DomainUsage

Lyrics

Seesaw swingin' with the boys in the school ("Walk This Way"; performing artist: Aerosmith)

Movie/TV Titles

Two for the Seesaw (1962)

The Seesaw and the Shoes (1945)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Commercial Usage: Seesaw

DomainTitle

Books

  

Theater & Movies

  

Music

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Image Slideshow: Seesaw

Photos:
Seesaw

More pictures...

Illustrations:
Seesaw

More pictures...

Computer Images:
Seesaw

More pictures...

Top     

Photo Album: Seesaw

ThumbnailDescription & Credit

Seesaw, Gloucester, Massachusetts / drawn by Winslow Homer. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Top     

Digital Photo Gallery: Seesaw
 

"Seesaw 1" by Bjarte Kvinge Tvedt
Commentary: "A nice seesaw."

Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.

Top     

Usage Frequency: Seesaw

"Seesaw" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 93.33% of the time. "Seesaw" is used about 15 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Noun (singular)93.33%1493,893
Lexical Verb (base form)6.67%1339,140
                    Total100.00%15N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Top     

Expressions: Seesaw

Expressions using "seesaw": ad seesaw play at seesaw seesaw between two opinions seesaw motion seesaw policy. Additional references.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Seesaw

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

seesaw

87

child clothes seesaw

59

picture seesaw

3

chat seesaw video

3

chat seesaw

2

cam seesaw web

2

giant seesaw

2

build seesaw

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Modern Translation: Seesaw

Language Translations for "seesaw"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

kolovitem (dangle), kolovajzë (teeter). (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏لعبة المرجحة (teeter), ‏تأرجح (fluctuate, fluctuation, hover, overbalance, pitch, rock, rocking, sway, swing, teeter, vacillate, vacillation), ‏أرجح (swage). (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

колебая се (balance, boggle, chop, crane, demur, dilly dally, dither, falter, fluctuate, hang back, hesitate, hover, hum and haw, jib, pause, pendulate, scruple, shilly shally, teeter, vacillate, vibrate, waver, whiffle, wobble, yo-yo), клатушкам се (dodder, joggle, niddle-noddle, stagger, swing, wamble, wobble), клатя се (dangle, oscillate, quake, teeter, totter, wobble), клатещ се (wobbly), клатене (oscillation, rock, shake, shaking, swing), климушка, непостоянен (astatic, capricious, casual, changeable, changeful, discontinuous, erratic, fickle, fluctuating, fluid, impermanent, inconstant, irregular, liquid, lubricous, mobile, mutable, non-persistent, sporadic, streaky, uncertain, unequable, uneven, unreliable, unstable, unsteady, vagarious, variable, variant, volatile, wayward, whimsical, yo-yo), нагоре-надолу (to and fro), напред-назад (to and fro), люлея се (nutate, oscillate, rock, sway, swing, teeter, toss, undulate, vacillate, vibrate), люлеене (cradling, oscillation, rock, sway, swing, vacillation, vibration), постоянно се променям. (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

蹺蹺板 , 跷跷板 (teeter). (various references)

   

Czech

  

nahoru dolù, houpat se na houpaèce, houpaèka (swing). (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

الله کلنگ کردن , الله کلنگ , بالاوپاءین رفتن (Teeter). (various references)

   

Finnish

  

kiikkulauta, keinua (rock, roll, sway, swing). (various references)

   

French

  

osciller, jouer à la bascule, bascule (see-saw). (various references)

   

German

  

wippen (Bob, bob up and down, nod, teeter, wag). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

τραμπάλα (teeter). (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

להתנדנד (fluctuate, oscillate, rock, sway, swing, teeter), התנדנדות (fluctuation, pitching, rocking, shaking, swaying, swinging), נדנדה (swing, swings). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

mérleghinta (teeter, teeter-totter), libikóka (teeter, teeter-totter). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

papan jungkit. (various references)

   

Italian

  

oscillare (balance, dither, flicker, fluctuate, jiggle, oscillate, range, rock, sway, swing, vacillate, wabble, waver, wobble), ondeggiante (flying, undulating, wavy), altalena (swing). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

シーズ線 (seesaw game, see-say policy, sheathing wire), シーソー遊び (CD, CD-ROM, ceiling, ceiling lamp, centralized traffic control, coelacanth, compact disk, computerized typesetting system, consumer price index, consumer price survey, CPI, CPS, CTC, CTS, fielding practice, maximum amount to allot for a budget, Sea Beam, sea berth, Sea Chicken, sea utopia, seafood, seahorse, Sealab, seamless, seat, seat belt, seat cover, seat warmer, seed, series, sheet, sheet feeder, sheet pile, skiers' greeting meaning "Good skiing!"). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

シーソーあそび, シーソー . (various references)

   

Korean 

  

시소. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

eesawsay.(various references)

   

Portuguese

  

gangorra (teeter, teeter-totter, weighing machine). (various references)

   

Romanian

  

legãnare (roll, sway, swing), da în sus şi în jos, basculant (rocking, tilting, tip up), balansare (balancing, sway, swing). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

качели (swing, swing set). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

nijhanje, ljuljati se (bob, swing), ljuljati (cradle, rock, swing), ljuljanje (roll, swinging), klackati, klackanje. (various references)

   

Spanish

  

subibaja. (various references)

   

Swedish

  

svänga fram och tillbaka, upp- och nedåtgående, gungbräde, gungbräda (teeter), gungande på gungbräde, gunga upp och ner, gunga på gungbräde, gunga fram och tillbaka. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

sallantı, tereddüd etmek (balk at, be vague about smth., dither, falter, halt, hesitate, oscillate, pause, pendulate, scruple, shilly shally, stagger, stickle, vacillate, vibrate, waver, wobble, yaw), tahterevalliye binmek, tahterevalli, kararsız olmak (back and fill, be hazy about, be in two minds, be uncertain, be vague about smth., dither, doubt, fluctuate, pendulate, vacillate), kâh öyle kâh böyle olmak, kâh öyle kâh böyle olan, inip çıkmak (balance, fluctuate, pump, undulate), inişli çıkışlı (bumpy, chequered, remittent, rugged, surging, surgy, undulant, uneven, up and down, with ups and downs), iniş çıkış, gidip gelmek (get about, go and return, go regularly, run, shuttle). (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

рухутися туди й назад, туди й назад (here and there, hither and thither, to and again, to and back, to and fro, up and down), гойдатися (dangle, oscillate, tilt, wag, waggle, weave), гойдання на дошці, мінливо, зворотно-поступальний рух (reciprocation), дитяча гойдалка (teeter). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

tình trạng cò cưa, lui tới, lưỡng lự (double-minded, doubtful, dubious, dubitative, haltingly, hesitant, hesitatingly, hesitative, indecisive, shilly-shally, undecided, unsteady), không kiên định (chameleonic, fickle, instable, mercurial, mutable, unstable, unsteadfast), kéo lui, cò cưa lắc lư, cò cưa dao động, đẩy tới (impulsive, propellant, propellent, propelling, propulsive), động tác kéo cưa. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Top     

Derivations & Misspellings: Seesaw

Derivations

Words beginning with "seesaw": seesawed, seesawing, seesaws. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Seesaw" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Seeia, Seeisa, seese, Seeya, Seisay, sesdaq, Seselwa, Sessa, Zeesen. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Top     

Anagrams: Seesaw

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "a-e-e-s-s-w"

-1 letter: eases.

-2 letters: awee, awes, ease, eses, ewes, saws, seas, sees, sews, waes, wees.

-3 letters: ass, awe, ess, ewe, sae, saw, sea, see, sew, wae, was, wee.

-4 letters: ae, as, aw, es, we.

 Words containing the letters "a-e-e-s-s-w"
 

+1 letter: aweless, pesewas, seesaws, sewages, waeness, weasels.

 

+2 letters: rewashes, seawares, seaweeds, seesawed, swearers, sweaters, wageless, wakeless, waveless, weakness.

 

+3 letters: answerers, askewness, awareness, beeswaxes, enswathes, eschewals, eyewashes, leastwise, newspeaks, prewashes, rawnesses, seawaters, seesawing, sewerages, snapweeds, speedways, stemwares, sweatiest, waenesses, wannesses, wasteries, waterless, weaksides, weariless, weariness, whereases, wiseacres, wiseasses.

 

+4 letters: awaynesses, earwitness, expressway, foreswears, hawseholes, housewares, leadscrews, lowercases, newsagents, newsbreaks, newscaster, newsmakers, newspapers, saleswomen, sawboneses, screwbeans, sharewares, shewbreads, sleepwalks, smartweeds, snakeweeds, stewardess, stonewares, superwaves, swaggerers, swanneries, sweatboxes, sweatiness, sweepbacks, sweepstake, sweetmeats, swellheads, waitressed, waitresses, wardresses, warehouses, warinesses, warmnesses, watercress, wateriness, watersheds, watersides, wavelessly, waveshapes, wavinesses, waxinesses, weakfishes, weakliness, weaknesses, weaponless, whatnesses, wheelbases, wholesales.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Top     



INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Slideshow
7. Images: Photo Album
8. Images: Digital Art
9. Usage Frequency
10. Expressions
11. Expressions: Internet
12. Translations: Modern
13. Derivations
14. Anagrams
15. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.