How to Use oscillator in a Sentence

oscillator

noun
  • The fly represents the oscillator, the part that controls the pitch.
    — Andrew Moseman, Popular Mechanics, 24 Aug. 2015
  • These modes are referred to as a damped harmonic oscillator.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 15 Mar. 2026
  • Just a weird observation about the oscillator that is worth pointing out.
    — Jim Cramer, CNBC, 21 May 2025
  • The cleaner works with an oscillator that'll move it back and forth, causing the cleaner to cover the bottom of the pool and pick up grime.
    — Jamie Weissman, Better Homes & Gardens, 18 Apr. 2023
  • But that’s in essence what the teams of Gröblacher and Sillanpää have achieved with their tiny oscillators.
    — Quanta Magazine, 25 June 2018
  • Here, two oscillators are running at close to but not identical frequencies.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 30 Apr. 2026
  • When two oscillators are paired, or coupled, their motions will naturally align.
    — Benjamin Kroposki, IEEE Spectrum, 20 Oct. 2016
  • So, Burt says, atomic clocks pair an oscillator with a collection of atoms to help keep that frequency stable.
    — Katrina Miller, Wired, 19 Oct. 2021
  • This change is then picked up by a second device called a ring oscillator, which converts voltage changes into a string of electrical pulses.
    — Robert F. Service, Science | AAAS, 31 May 2018
  • And there's a reading based on the stochastic oscillator that is an actual overbought reading.
    — Steven Ehrlich, Forbes, 2 May 2022
  • One of these tiny simple harmonic oscillators, sort of like this tiny pendulum, existing at every point in space.
    — Steven Strogatz, Quanta Magazine, 26 July 2023
  • There is an infinite number of oscillators in a field, and thus a field should contain an infinite amount of zero-point energy.
    — George Musser, Quanta Magazine, 5 Jan. 2026
  • The oversized silicon oscillator and balance spring serve as the minute hand, while the hour display is a rotating disc beneath the movement.
    — Matthew Catellier, Forbes, 21 Oct. 2024
  • Daphne is frustrated with her lack of progress in her latest music endeavors, working on an elaborate set-up of tape decks and sound wave oscillators.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
  • This watch features a rose gold metal casing and moving glitter pieces as well as a quartz oscillator and three hands to keep track of time as precisely as possible.
    — Courtney Campbell, USA TODAY, 23 Mar. 2021
  • By contrast, the new graphene detector would require less than a nanowatt of local oscillator power, or three orders of magnitude less.
    — Margo Anderson, IEEE Spectrum, 24 Sep. 2019
  • In an atomic clock, the frequency of the quartz oscillator is fine tuned to match the energy needed to pop electrons to a new energy level.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 26 June 2019
  • Patent application for the radio crystal oscillator is filed.
    — cleveland.com, 2 Jan. 2018
  • But assembly requires only the ability to push a 4-pin oscillator crystal into a socket the right way around.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 27 Aug. 2013
  • In an optical lattice atomic clock, a type of atomic clock that’s still being developed and perfected, atoms act as the oscillator.
    — Chelsea Gohd, Discover Magazine, 7 Dec. 2018
  • And throughout science and physics in particular, oscillators are always sort of important.
    — Steven Strogatz, Quanta Magazine, 8 Mar. 2023
  • One beam gets reflected off a component known as an oscillator, and any movement of the oscillator changes the distance the light travels on its way to a detector.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 26 Apr. 2023
  • The uptrend line would be a natural place for the stock to stabilize, noting the stochastic oscillator is deep in oversold territory.
    — Katie Stockton, CNBC, 14 Oct. 2024
  • For example, pendulum clocks are non-linear oscillators.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 26 July 2017
  • Here is an example of the stochastic oscillator using ether (ETH).
    — Steven Ehrlich, Forbes, 2 May 2022
  • Where each horizontal and vertical oscillator meet is a weighted connection representing the strength of the link between two spins.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 23 Sep. 2023
  • Quantum field theorists typically describe fields as a collection of oscillators, each of which has its own zero-point energy.
    — George Musser, Quanta Magazine, 5 Jan. 2026
  • Beyond just building a more accurate timepiece, using an oscillator instead of a balance spring means less moving parts, which means less wear and no required lubrication.
    — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 14 Sep. 2017
  • However, a new study presents the first exact solution to a damped quantum harmonic oscillator, a system that slowly loses energy.
    — Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 16 Aug. 2025
  • Like the heartbeat of a human, timing technologies such as oscillators and clock chips are fundamental building blocks of complex circuits, systems and networks.
    — Dave Altavilla, Forbes, 14 Feb. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'oscillator.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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