fluctuant
Americanadjective
-
fluctuating; varying; unstable.
-
undulating; moving or seeming to move in waves.
adjective
Usage
What does fluctuant mean? Fluctuant is an adjective used to describe things that are fluctuating—continually changing or shifting back and forth. It often implies that such things are unstable or prone to varying. It’s typically applied to abstract or intangible things that frequently change, such as temperature, the stock market, or someone’s mood. It can also be used to describe things that move or seem to move in waves. Fluctuant is much less commonly used than the verb fluctuate and the noun fluctuation. Example: The volume on my TV is annoyingly fluctuant—it gets louder during commercials and then it gets quiet again when the show comes back on.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fluctuant
1550–60; < Latin fluctuant- (stem of fluctuāns ) (present participle of fluctuāre to undulate). See fluctuate, -ant
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.
The result was an unflattering portrait that emphasized "strong, although fluctuant, emotional attachments" and "sudden and extreme shifts in loyalty and enthusiasm."
From Time Magazine Archive
So my Dream fell dead; and the fluctuant passion — The stress and strain of the past re-grew, The world laughed on in its heedless fashion, But Earth whirled worthless, because of you!
From An Anthology of Australian Verse by Bertram Stevens
In the middle of the camp Daddy John's fire flared, the central point of illumination in a ring of fluctuant yellow.
From The Emigrant Trail by Geraldine Bonner
Along her sensitive, fluctuant nostrils the casual crinkle of distaste and suspicion had deepened suddenly into sheer dilating terror.
From The White Linen Nurse by Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
The quest of what abides in a fluctuant world as the binding thread of human history.
From Manhood of Humanity. by Alfred Korzybski
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.
