fickle
Americanadjective
-
likely to change, especially due to caprice, irresolution, or instability; casually changeable.
fickle weather.
- Synonyms:
- fitful, capricious, variable, unsteady, unstable
-
not constant or loyal in affections.
a fickle lover.
- Synonyms:
- inconstant
adjective
Related Words
Fickle, inconstant, capricious, vacillating describe persons or things that are not firm or steady in affection, behavior, opinion, or loyalty. Fickle implies an underlying perversity as a cause for the lack of stability: the fickle seasons, disappointing as often as they delight; once lionized, now rejected by a fickle public. Inconstant suggests an innate disposition to change: an inconstant lover, flitting from affair to affair. Capricious implies unpredictable changeability arising from sudden whim: a capricious administration constantly and inexplicably changing its signals; a capricious and astounding reversal of position. Vacillating means changeable due to lack of resolution or firmness: an indecisive, vacillating leader, apparently incapable of a sustained course of action.
Other Word Forms
- fickleness noun
- unfickle adjective
Etymology
Origin of fickle
First recorded before 1000; Middle English fikel, Old English ficol “deceitful,” akin to fācen “treachery,” (be)fician “to deceive,” fǣcne “deceitful,” gefic “deception”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Working with stars Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, director Kristoffer Borgli is less interested in matters of compatibility than the fickle calculus of cancellation.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2026
The MLB playoffs are notoriously fickle and subject to randomness that prevents dynasties.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 2026
And yet Micron shares are falling, closing Wednesday down another 3.4%, to $382.09; investors have a fickle relationship with Micron after years of getting burned by the cyclical nature of the memory business.
From Barron's • Mar. 25, 2026
In fairness to Trump, the public can be fickle.
From Slate • Mar. 10, 2026
Yet the rules of segregation could also be fickle.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
