perturbation

Borrowed from Middle French perturbation, from Old French perturbacion, from Latin perturbatio.

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

perturbation (countable and uncountable, plural perturbations)

1. (uncountable) Agitation; the state of being perturbed
   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume I, chapter 5:

     But her mind had never been in such perturbation; and it needed a very strong effort to appear attentive and cheerful till the usual hour of separating allowed her the relief of quiet reflection.

2. (countable) A small change in a physical system, or more broadly any definable system (such as a biological or economic system)
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Youth and Age. XLII.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, pages 247–248:

     Natures that haue much Heat, and great and violent deſires and Perturbations, are not ripe for Action, till they haue paſſed the Meridian of their yeares: As it was with Iulius Cæſar, and Septimius Seuerus.

3. (countable, astronomy, physics) Variation in an orbit due to the influence of external bodies

• perturb
• perturbatory

Borrowed from Latin perturbātiōnem.

• Audio

  (file)

perturbation f (plural perturbations)

1. disturbance
2. derangement

• perturber

• → Romanian: perturbație

• “perturbation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.