wave front

noun

, Physics.

1. a surface, real or imaginary, that is the locus of all adjacent points at which the phase of oscillation is the same.

wave front

1. The set of points in space reached by a wave or vibration at the same instant as the wave travels through a medium. Wave fronts generally form a continuous line or surface. The lines formed by crests of ripples on a pond, for example, correspond to curved wave fronts.

Word History and Origins

Origin of wave front¹

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

When researchers shine an x-ray beam through a sample, variations in the material will delay the wave front of the coherent x-rays to different degrees, creating a mottled intensity pattern on a distant detector.

From Science Magazine

“It's wave front stuff; this is the edge of science,” said Andrew Ellington, a biochemist at the University of Texas at Austin who was not involved in the research.

From Washington Post

Like evenly spaced water waves lapping on a beach, the light waves in the reference beam arrive in flat wave fronts.

From Science Magazine

If you send light produced in this way through a dispersive medium, Einstein predicted, the wave fronts should be deflected if the emission process were classical.

From Scientific American

As it traveled towards land, ocean ridges and undersea mountains pushed the wave fronts together, keeping the tsunami stable even as it hurtled towards the coast.

From Time