# frequency

Pronunciation: US say "FREE-kwuhn-see" /ˈfɹiːkwənsi/; UK

## Noun

1. The rate at which something occurs; how often an event happens within a given period of time.
   - Simple: How often something happens over a period of time.
   - _The frequency of earthquakes in the region has increased over the past decade._
   - _Marketers track the frequency of repeat purchases among loyal customers._
2. The number of times a periodic phenomenon occurs divided by the time over which it occurs.
   - Simple: The number of times a repeating event happens in a set amount of time.
   - _The pendulum swings at a frequency of one cycle every two seconds._
   - _Human ears can detect sound frequencies between roughly 20 and 20,000 hertz._
3. The fact of happening many times or at short intervals, as opposed to only rarely.
   - Simple: The quality of happening often instead of only once in a while.
   - _The frequency of his interruptions made the meeting hard to follow._
   - _Critics noted the frequency of typos throughout the report._
4. The number of times an event occurred in an experiment; also called absolute frequency.
   - Simple: In math and science, the number of times something happened during an experiment.
   - _The frequency of sixes in sixty rolls of the die was nine._
   - _In the survey data, the response 'satisfied' had the highest frequency._
5. A tone, character, mood, or vibe that a person, place, or situation gives off.
   - Simple: The general feeling or mood that a person, place, or thing gives off.
   - _The whole retreat operated on a mellow frequency that put guests at ease._
   - _After the argument, the office's frequency shifted to something tense and quiet._

## Origin

This comes from Latin "frequentia," from "frequens"; by surface analysis it can be read as "frequent" plus the suffix "-cy."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/frequency (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).