Waveform

Definition: Waveform

Waveform

Noun

1. The shape of a wave illustrated graphically by plotting the values of the period quantity against time.

Specialty Definitions: Waveform

Domain	Definitions
Aerospace	The graphical representation of a wave, showing variation of amplitude with time. (references)
Electrical Engineering	The shape of the graph representing the successive values of a varying quantity, usually voltage, current or power, plotted against another variable, usually time, and generally in a rectangular co-ordinate system. Source: European Union. (references)
	The representation of the local or the instantaneous value of a function defining the wave. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Waveform

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Waveform quite literally means the shape and form of a signal, such as a wave moving across the surface of water, or the vibration of a plucked string.

In many cases the medium in which the wave is being propagated does not permit a direct visual image of the form. In these cases, the term 'waveform' refers to the shape of a graph of the varying quantity against time or distance. An instrument called an oscilloscope can be used to pictorially repesent the wave as a repeating image on a CRT screen.

By extension of the above, the term 'waveform' is now also used loosely to describe the shape of the graph of any periodically varying quantity against time.

Examples of waveforms

Periodic sound waveforms also have distinctive timbres: see psychoacoustics.

Common waveforms include

Sine wave: sin(2*Pi*t). The amplitude of the waveform follows a trigonometric sine function with respect to time.
Sawtooth wave: 2*(t - floor(t)) - 1. Looks like the teeth of a saw. Found often in time bases for display scanning. Often used as the starting point for subtractive synthesis, as a sawtooth wave of constant period contains odd and even harmonics that fall off at -6 dB/octave.
Square wave: saw(x) - saw(x - duty). This waveform is commonly used to represent digital information. A square wave of constant period contains odd harmonics that fall off at -6 dB/octave.
Trapezoidal wave: combination of a square wave and a sawtooth wave
Triangle wave: (t - 2*floor((t + 1)/2)) * (-1)^{floor((t + 1)/2)}. Integral of the square wave. A triangle wave of constant period contains odd harmonics that fall off at -12 dB/octave.
Ocean wave: Characteristic form of a wave in a liquid medium

Other waveforms are often called composite waveforms and can often be described as a combination of a number of sinusoidal waves added together.

The Fourier transform describes the composition of distorted waveforms, such that any periodic waveform can be formed by the sum of a fundamental component and harmonic components.

Fourier analysis provides a method for decomposing a measured waveform into its harmonic components. This is readily achieved with a sampling instrument, which samples the waveform using an analogue to digital converter and then applies a software discrete Fourier transform to find the mix of harmonic components which make up the waveform.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Waveform."

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Synonyms: Waveform

Synonyms: wave form (n), wave shape (n). (additional references)

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Crosswords: Waveform

English words defined with "waveform": clipper ♦ jitter ♦ limiter ♦ sampling, sine wave. (references)

Specialty definitions using "waveform": AudioOne ♦ clamping circuit, clipping circuit, counter type a/d converter, counter type analog/digital converter, counter type analogue/digital converter ♦ digital audio, discretely-timed signal, domain-originated functional integrated circuit, double-amplitude peak ♦ extracted charge ♦ Fourier transform ♦ Gaussian pulse ♦ intermodulation distortion ♦ line tilt, line tilt correction ♦ non-uniform quantising logarithmic compression, Nyquist Theorem ♦ peak limiter, peak-to-peak amplitude, peak-to-peak value, phase shift, phase-coherent frequency shift keying, phase-coherent FSK ♦ speech synthesis ♦ Total Harmonic Distortion ♦ velocity of propagation, voltage-controlled oscillator ♦ wav, Waveform Generation Language, WGL, wiggles. (references)

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Commercial Usage: Waveform

Domain	Title
Books	Amplifiers, Waveform Generators, and Other Low-Cost Ic Projects (reference) Asymptotic Waveform Evaluation and Moment Matching for Interconnect Analysis (Kluwer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science, 252) (reference) Digital Waveform Processing and Recognition (reference) Electronics Via Waveform Analysis (reference) Hemodynamic Waveform Analysis (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Waveform Analysis and Interpretation (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	Two A.D.: A Waveform Complication, Vol. 2 Ambient (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Photo Album: Waveform

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Electroencephalographic (i.e., brain wave) tracings of the waveform P300 obtained from nonalcoholic (i.e., control) and alcoholic subjects in response to a visual stimulus.Credit: NIAA.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Waveform

"Waveform" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.02% of the time. "Waveform" is used about 101 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 Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	98.02%	99	32,870
Lexical Verb (base form)	1.98%	2	245,945
Total	100.00%	101	N/A

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

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Expression: Waveform

Expression using "waveform": waveform Generation Language. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Waveform

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.

Expression	Frequency per Day
waveform	31
waveform generator	14
arbitrary waveform generator	11
waveform monitor	10
time waveform	9
asymmetric field high ion mobility spectrometry waveform	8
arbitrary awg710 generator waveform	7
biphasic star technology waveform	6
oxygen sensor waveform	6
hemodynamic waveform	5
editor waveform	3
lasik waveform	2
interpretation waveform	2
decoder nullsoft waveform	2
graphic waveform	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Waveform

Language		Translations for "waveform"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Chinese		信号波形. (various references)

Danish		kurveform (waveshape), impulsform (waveshape), bølgeform (waveshape). (various references)

Dutch		golfvorm (wave form, waveshape). (various references)

Finnish		aaltomuoto (electromagnetic mode, mode, wave form, waveshape). (various references)

French		signal (waveshape), représentation oscillographique (waveshape), onde (water, wave), forme d'une onde (waveshape), forme d'une caractéristique (waveshape), forme d'onde (wave form, waveshape). (various references)

German		Wellenform (undulation), Kurvenform (wave form, waveshape). (various references)

Greek		κυματομορφή (waveshape), μορφή κύματος (waveshape). (various references)

Italian		forma d'onda (wave form, waveshape). (various references)

Korean		파형 (Corrugation). (various references)

Pig Latin		aveformway

Portuguese		sinal (alarm, Beck, character, denotation, denotement, deposit, gesture, guide, handsel, Hansel, impress, imprint, index, indication, mark, note, pledge, rubber stamp, scar, seal, sign, signal, signature, spot, stamp, symptom, tincture, token, trace, track, vestige), onda (billow, curl, jaw, sea, surge, water-wave, wave), forma de onda (waveshape), forma da onda (wave form). (various references)

Spanish		señal (bookmark, cue, deposit, impress, impression, mark, marker, motion, note, print, punch mark, score, sign, signal, token, trace, wave), onda (ripple, wave), forma de onda (wave form, waveshape). (various references)

Swedish		vågform (wave form, waveshape). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations: Waveform

Derivations
	Words beginning with "waveform": waveforms. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Anagrams: Waveform

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-e-f-m-o-r-v-w"
	-2 letters: avower, femora, foamer, reavow, womera.
	-3 letters: afore, favor, foram, forme, fovea, frame, morae, mover, mower, vomer, vower, wafer, waver.
	-4 letters: aero, arvo, aver, avow, fame, fare, farm, faro, fave, fear, foam, fora, fore, form, frae, froe, from, frow, mare, meow, mora, more, move, omer, over, rave, ream, roam, rove, vera, vrow, wame, ware.
	Words containing the letters "a-e-f-m-o-r-v-w"
	+1 letter: waveforms.
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.