fluent

[floo-uhnt]

adjective

1. spoken or written with ease.

   fluent French.

2. able to speak or write smoothly, easily, or readily.

   a fluent speaker;

   fluent in six languages.

3. easy; graceful.

   fluent motion;

   fluent curves.

4. flowing, as a stream.

5. capable of flowing; fluid, as liquids or gases.

6. easily changed or adapted; pliant.

fluent

/ ˈfluːənt /

adjective

1. able to speak or write a specified foreign language with facility

2. spoken or written with facility

   his French is fluent

3. easy and graceful in motion or shape

4. flowing or able to flow freely

Other Word Forms

• fluency noun
• fluentness noun
• fluently adverb
• nonfluency noun
• nonfluent adjective
• nonfluentness noun
• overfluency noun
• overfluent adjective
• overfluentness noun
• transfluent adjective
• unfluent adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of fluent¹

First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin fluent- (stem of fluēns ) “flowing,” present participle of fluere; -ent

Word History and Origins

Origin of fluent¹

C16: from Latin: flowing, from fluere to flow

Synonym Study

Fluent, glib, voluble may refer to a flow of words. Fluent suggests the easy and ready flow of an accomplished speaker and is usually a term of commendation: a fluent and interesting speech. Glib implies an excessive fluency divorced from sincerity or profundity; it often suggests talking smoothly and hurriedly to cover up or deceive, not giving the hearer a chance to stop and think; it may also imply a plausible, prepared, and well-rehearsed lie: He had a glib answer for everything. Voluble implies the overcopious and often rapid flow of words characteristic of a person who loves to talk: She overwhelmed him with her voluble answer. See also eloquent.

Example Sentences

A fluent English speaker, Liu joined China’s Communist Party and the Foreign Ministry in the 1980s, when he also spent time studying international relations at Oxford University.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Although he is a native Spaniard, his English is so fluent it sounds like he has not spent a day away from north London, where he moved aged 16 to join Arsenal's academy.

Read more on BBC

He is a fluent Welsh speaker, and describes himself as an enthusiastic supporter of grassroots Welsh rugby and a keen follower of the national side.

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"It's pretty hard. I can understand more than I can speak," she says in fluent English, her third language after Swedish and Arabic.

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Many researchers and academics who have left the US for China in recent years are ethnic Chinese and fluent in Mandarin.

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Related Words

• eloquent 
• persuasive 
• talkative 
• vocal