This paper proposes a wavelet-based formulation for linearizing a base-exci
ted single-degree-of freedom nonlinear system to a time-variant linear (TVL
) system. The given system is assumed to be nonlinear in stiffness, and the
time-dependent natural frequency of the equivalent system is proposed to b
e estimated through instantaneous minimization of the mean-square error. A
duffing oscillator has been considered to illustrate the performance of the
proposed TVL system.