waveform

thumb|350px|sine wave|Sine, square, triangle, and sawtooth waveforms. right|thumb|A sine, square, and sawtooth wave at 440 Hz right|thumb|A composite waveform that is shaped like a teardrop. right|thumb|A waveform generated by a synthesizer

In electronics, acoustics, and related fields, the waveform of a signal is the shape of its graph as a function of time, independent of its time and magnitude scales and of any displacement in time. Periodic waveforms repeat regularly at a constant period. The term can also be used for non-periodic or aperiodic signals, like chirps and pulses.