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A capillary wave is a wave traveling along the phase boundary of a fluid, whose dynamics and phase velocity are dominated by the effects of surface tension. Capillary waves are common in nature, and are often referred to as ripples. The wavelength of capillary waves on water is typically less than a few centimeters, with a phase speed in excess of 0.2–0.3 meter/second. A longer wavelength on a fluid interface will result in gravity–capillary waves which are influenced by both the effects of surface tension and gravity, as well as by fluid inertia. Ordinary gravity waves have a still longer wavelength. When generated by light wind in open water, a nautical name for them is cat's paw waves. Light breezes which stir up such small ripples are also sometimes referred to as cat's paws. On the open ocean, much larger ocean surface waves (seas and swells) may result from coalescence of smaller wind-caused ripple-waves. The dispersion relation describes the relationship between wavelength and frequency in waves. Distinction can be made between pure capillary waves – fully dominated by the effects of surface tension – and gravity–capillary waves which are also affected by gravity. The dispersion relation for capillary waves is where is the angular frequency, the surface tension, the density of the heavier fluid, the density of the lighter fluid and the wavenumber. The wavelength is For the boundary between fluid and vacuum (free surface), the dispersion relation reduces to When capillary waves are also affected substantially by gravity, they are called gravity–capillary waves. Their dispersion relation reads, for waves on the interface between two fluids of infinite depth: where is the acceleration due to gravity, and are the mass density of the two fluids . The factor in the first term is the Atwood number. For large wavelengths (small ), only the first term is relevant and one has gravity waves. In this limit, the waves have a group velocity half the phase velocity: following a single wave's crest in a group one can see the wave appearing at the back of the group, growing and finally disappearing at the front of the group.

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