Letters starting with “O”

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OCCULT

1. hidden; concealed
2. secret; esoteric
3. beyond human understanding; mysterious
4. designating or of certain arts, studies, or practices, as magic, alchemy, or astrology, involving mysterious powers that some people believe can affect the way things happen
5. to hide or become hidden from view
6. Astron. to hide by occultation

OCTAVE

Note: Wikipedia

1. a) the eighth day following a church festival, counting the festival day as the first b) the entire period between the festival and this day
2. a group of eight lines of a petrarchan sonnet
3. any group of eight
4. Fencing a position of thrust or parry in which the hand is rotated with the palm up
5. Music a) the eighth tone of an ascending or descending diatonic scale, or a tone seven degrees above or below a given tone in such a scale b) the interval of seven diatonic degrees between a tone either of its octaves c) the series of tones contained within this interval, or the keys of an instrument producing such a series d) a tone and either of its octaves sounded together e) an organ stop producing tones an octave above those ordinarily produced by the keys struck
6. consisting of eight, or an octave
7. Music producing tones an octave higher [an octave key]

OPALESCENT

1. showing a play of colors like that of an opal; iridescent

OSCILLATING

Note: see OSCILLATE and OSCILLATION

1. to swing or move regularly back and forth
2. to be indecisive in purpose or opinion; vacillate
3. Physics to vary regularly between maximum and minimum values, as an electric current-to cause to oscillate
4. the act of oscillating
5. fluctuation; instability; variation
6. Physics a) repeated variation in the value of some physical quantity, as position or voltage b) a single instance or cycle of such a variation

OXIDE

1. a binary compound of oxygen with some other element or with a radical

OZONE

Note: see ozone layer

1. an unstable, pale-blue gas, O3 with a penetrating odor: it is an allotropic form of oxygen, formed usually by a silent electrical discharge in the air, and is used as an oxidizing, deodorizing, and bleaching agent and in purification of water
2. pure, fresh air-the atmospheric layer within the stratosphere, extending from a height of c. 15 to c. 30 km (c. 9 to c. 18 mi.) and having a heavy concentration of ozone: it absorbs dangerous ultra violet radiation from the sun and serves to maintain the temperature of the atmosphere

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