Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day undulate
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Mar 25, 2026 A lively look at the word undulate and its meaning of moving or being shaped like waves. Listeners hear a vivid example of cheese and dough gently rising and undulating. The show traces the word back to Latin unda and explores related words like inundate, abound, surround, and redound.
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Undulate Means To Move Like Waves
- Undulate means to move or be shaped like waves and is a formal verb definition from Merriam-Webster.
- The episode uses a sentence about cheese and dough plumping and undulating as it expands to illustrate the waveform motion.
Cheese And Dough Undulating As They Expand
- The episode quotes Karima Moyer-Nocchi describing heated cheese and dough that will plump up and undulate slightly as it expands.
- This concrete culinary image ties the abstract verb to a vivid food-science example from The Epic History of Macaroni and Cheese.
Multiple English Words Trace Back To Unda
- Undulate and inundate share the Latin root unda meaning wave, making them etymological cousins.
- Surprisingly, abound, surround, and redound also derive from unda and once meant "to overflow."
