anti-periodic
|an-ti-pe-ri-od-ic|
🇺🇸
/ˌæn.ti.pɪəˈrɑdɪk/
🇬🇧
/ˌæn.ti.pɪəˈrɒdɪk/
sign reverses after one period
Etymology
'anti-periodic' is formed from the prefix 'anti-' (from Greek 'anti', meaning 'against, opposite') plus 'periodic' (from Greek 'periodikos', from 'periodos' meaning 'a going around, cycle').
'periodic' comes from Greek 'periodos' → Late Latin/Medieval Latin 'periodicus' → Middle English 'periodic'; the prefix 'anti-' came from Greek 'anti' into Latin and then into English, and the compound 'anti-periodic' developed in technical use to describe the property of sign reversal after a period.
Initially the parts meant 'against' + 'relating to a period/cycle'; over time the compound acquired the specific technical meaning 'having the property that a shift by a period reverses sign', especially in mathematics and physics.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
describing a function or pattern f such that for some nonzero period T, f(x + T) = -f(x); exhibiting antiperiodicity (often used in mathematics and physics).
The function is anti-periodic with period T because f(x + T) = -f(x) for all x.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2025/11/13 04:23