chirped

Chirped is the past tense of the verb chirp, meaning to emit a short, high-pitched sound. In everyday language, something that has produced such a sound is described as chirped. The term is also used in technical contexts to describe signals or pulses whose frequency changes over time.

In biology, chirped describes vocalizations made by birds, insects, and other animals. For example, a bird may chirp in a morning chorus, and observers might say it chirped in response to a stimulus. The word captures the characteristic short, musical quality of the sound.

In signal processing and communications, a chirped signal is one whose instantaneous frequency varies with time. A common form is a linear chirp, where frequency changes at a constant rate. Chirped signals are valued for their large time–bandwidth product, enabling better resolution and range compression in applications such as radar, sonar, and certain communications systems.

In optics and photonics, chirped pulses occur when the frequency content of a light pulse sweeps over time. Chirped pulse amplification is a notable technique that stretches a short pulse in time to lower its peak power for amplification, then recompresses it to achieve very short, high-intensity pulses.

Usage and nuance: beyond technical contexts, chirped can describe any sound or texture that rises or falls in pitch over time. As a broader descriptor, it emphasizes a time-varying frequency rather than a fixed pitch.