undulate

Borrowed from Late Latin undulātus (“undulated”), from an unattested *undula (“small wave”), diminutive of Latin unda (“wave”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈʌndjəleɪt/, /ˈʌndjʊleɪt/, /ˈʌnd͡ʒəleɪt/, /ˈʌnd͡ʒʊleɪt/, /ˈʌndəleɪt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (adjective, non-merged vowel) IPA^(key): /ˈʌndjəlɪt/, /ˈʌndjʊlɪt/, /ˈʌnd͡ʒəlɪt/, /ˈʌnd͡ʒʊlɪt/, /ˈʌndəlɪt/
• (adjective, merged vowel) IPA^(key): /ˈʌndjələt/, /ˈʌnd͡ʒələt/, /ˈʌndələt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

undulate (third-person singular simple present undulates, present participle undulating, simple past and past participle undulated)

1. (transitive) To cause to move in a wavelike motion.
   • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech: An Essay of Inquiry into the Natural Production of Letters: […], London: […] T. N[ewcomb] for J[ohn] Martyn printer to the R[oyal] Society, […], →OCLC:

     Breath vocalized, i.e., vibrated and undulated.

2. (transitive) To cause to resemble a wave.
3. (intransitive) To move in wavelike motions.
   • 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:

     Come lovely and soothing death, / Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving, / In the day, in the night, to all, to each, / Sooner or later delicate death.

4. (intransitive) To appear wavelike.

• oscillate

Flowers with undulate petal margins

undulate (comparative more undulate, superlative most undulate)

1. Wavy in appearance or form.
2. Changing the pitch and volume of one's voice.
3. (botany, of a margin) sinuous, winding up and down.

undulāte

1. vocative masculine singular of undulātus