Heaviside, Oliver Syllabification: (Heav·i·side, Oliver)Pronunciation: /ˈhevēˌsīd/Definition of Heaviside, Oliver (1850–1925), English physicist and electrical engineer. In 1902, he suggested the existence of a layer in the atmosphere responsible for reflecting radio waves back to earth. Heaviside, Oliver in other Oxford dictionaries Definition of Heaviside, Oliver in the British & World English dictionary