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fluctuant

[fluhk-choo-uh nt]
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adjective
  1. fluctuating; varying; unstable.
  2. undulating; moving or seeming to move in waves.
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Origin of fluctuant

1550–60; < Latin fluctuant- (stem of fluctuāns) (present participle of fluctuāre to undulate). See fluctuate, -ant
Related formsun·fluc·tu·ant, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

enormousuntoldunforeseenimmenseboundlessinfinitevastshakyunstablewobblyfrailunreliableimmaturevulnerablerockynervousinsecureweakprecariousunsettled

Examples from the Web for fluctuant

Historical Examples

  • She seemed to be clothed in fluctuant light, and yet it could not dim one radiance of her beauty.

    "Persons Unknown"

    Virginia Tracy

  • With fluctuant blackness against immutable blackness great sweeping pine trees swished weirdly into the horizon.

    Peace on Earth, Good-will to Dogs

    Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

  • Put forth thy wings, thy coronals of Love, wrap thee with fluctuant Winds and exulting Seas!

  • And the fluctuant oceans plume on plume Bears down to a rock-ribbed hidden doom, And the sky is ashen gray.

    Trench Ballads and Other Verses

    Erwin Clarkson Garrett

  • Brown is fluctuant; he once lay at a woman's house in Pemlicoe, Dublin.

British Dictionary definitions for fluctuant

fluctuant

adjective
  1. inclined to vary or fluctuate; unstable
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for fluctuant

adj.

1550s, from Latin fluctuantem (nominative fluctuans), present participle of fluctuare "to move in waves" (see fluctuation).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper