fluctuant
Americanadjective
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fluctuating; varying; unstable.
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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
Society at Balderville was of the fluctuant, intermittent order that obtains at minor resorts; the crop of visitors was bad or good, according to the year, like the peaches or cotton.
From The Wayfarers by Mary Stewart Doubleday Cutting
Sometimes at our feet, beneath the seamy fissures of a hillside, or far removed by sweep of meadow, lay the fluctuant mass we call the sea.
From In and out of Three Normady Inns by Anna Bowman Dodd
Just now, therefore, Francis Lingen flowed murmuring on his way, like a purling brook, rippling, fluctuant, carrying insignificant straws, insects of the hour, on his course, never jamming, or heaving up, monotonous but soothing.
From Love and Lucy by Maurice Henry Hewlett
From time to time some one appeared clambering over heads and shoulders to make a desperate lunge and snatch at the flowers, and then fall back into the fluctuant heap again.
From April Hopes by William Dean Howells
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.
