ultrasound

ultra- +‎ sound

ultrasound (countable and uncountable, plural ultrasounds)

1. (physics) Sound with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing, which is approximately 20 kilohertz.
2. (medicine) The use of ultrasonic waves for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes.
   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:

     Ultrasound as a treatment for degenerative arthritis was in its infancy. It might eventually turn out to be as effective as the Salk vaccine, or as bogus as the science of phrenology.

• (antonym(s) of “physics”): infrasound

• ultrasonic, ultrasonics

ultrasound (third-person singular simple present ultrasounds, present participle ultrasounding, simple past and past participle ultrasounded)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To treat with ultrasound.

• ultrasonicate

• undulators