Amplitude

How to spell amplitude

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce amplitude

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does amplitude mean?

1. nounThe maximum extent of a vibration or oscillation, measured from the position of equilibrium.

Amplitude in a sentence

• Turning up the volume increases the amplitude of the sound wave.

• The engineer measured the amplitude of the bridge's vibration during the test.

Where does amplitude come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin amplitudo, meaning 'wide extent', 'breadth' or 'spaciousness', which was built on the adjective amplus, literally 'large', 'roomy' or 'abundant'. The noun-forming ending -tudo (the source of English -tude) turned that adjective into the abstract quality of being ample, much as 'magnitude' was formed from magnus 'great'. English took the word in during the late 1500s, at first to mean sheer largeness, fullness or abundance, the sense still felt in the phrase 'amplitude of space'. From the 1700s onward scientists narrowed one strand of the meaning to the measurable size of a swing or oscillation, giving the modern physics sense of how far a wave departs from its resting point. The same amplus root survives in the everyday words 'ample' and 'amplify', and remembering that 'ample' core helps fix the opening ampli- and the silent-feeling, unstressed middle of the spelling.

How the word is built

• ampli- (from Latin amplus: large, spacious)
• -tude (noun-forming suffix meaning state or quality)