fluctuate
Americanverb (used without object)
-
fluctuates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fluctuated,
past participle, past
-
fluctuating
present participle
-
to change continually; shift back and forth; vary irregularly.
The price of gold fluctuated wildly last month.
-
to move back and forth in waves.
- Synonyms:
- oscillate
verb (used with object)
-
fluctuates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fluctuated,
past participle, past
-
fluctuating
present participle
verb
-
to change or cause to change position constantly; be or make unstable; waver or vary
-
(intr) to rise and fall like a wave; undulate
Usage
What does fluctuate mean? Fluctuate means to continually change or shift back and forth. The verb is most commonly used in the context of abstract or intangible things that frequently change, such as temperature, the stock market, or someone’s mood. This kind of continual change is called fluctuation. Example: The volume on my TV keeps fluctuating—it gets louder during commercials and then it gets quiet again when the show comes back on.
Synonym Usage
See waver 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
fluctuatesimple
-
fluctuatessimple
-
have fluctuatedperfect
-
has fluctuatedperfect
-
am fluctuatingprogressive
-
are fluctuatingprogressive
-
is fluctuatingprogressive
-
have been fluctuatingperfect progressive
-
has been fluctuatingperfect progressive
Past
-
fluctuatedsimple
-
had fluctuatedperfect
-
was fluctuatingprogressive
-
were fluctuatingprogressive
-
had been fluctuatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fluctuate
First recorded in 1625–35; from Latin fluctuātus “undulated,” past participle of fluctuāre “to flow,” equivalent to fluctu(s) “a flowing” (derivative of fluere “to flow”) + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
Something that fluctuates varies or changes — it's the opposite of steady. Like the ups and downs of the stock market or the relationship status of a Hollywood starlet. Fluctuate is a verb that describes movement, sometimes irregular, but often rising and falling in a wave-like pattern. The tides fluctuate according to the weather and season, for example. Your emotions fluctuate depending on what happens throughout the day, and so does your weight. In fact, you usually weigh less in the morning, before you've eaten. You're also taller, since your spine compresses as you walk around. So your height fluctuates, too.
Vocabulary lists containing fluctuate
Tier 2 Words for the SBAC ELA Items
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
List 3
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Darius the Great Is Not Okay
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
See Examples For:
Instead, they expect a prolonged series of halting starts and stops to the conflict, causing flows through the Strait of Hormuz to continuously fluctuate.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026
However, the photons in each type of light fluctuate and interact in different ways.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026
The Singapore dollar is managed against an undisclosed basket of currencies belonging to the city-state’s major trading partners and allowed to fluctuate within a policy band.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Experts say camels comfortably beat the heat up to around 40C by mainly allowing their body temperature to fluctuate by several degrees throughout the day to deal with outside temperature.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
To be honest, due to my nine months of experience, my shifts fluctuate from night to day week after week.
From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak
As packages are unveiled and sold, available inventory on the website fluctuates — which means fans can spend a lot of time checking and rechecking.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
The Northwestern figure fluctuates depending on economic and political events.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
It’s one of the largest concentrations of capybaras in São Paulo, though its exact number of members fluctuates.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
However, the market price of such funds could vary greatly from the net value of their assets, Mishra noted, as trading in those fund shares fluctuates based on investor demand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026
The quota system has worked for over two hundred years, and although it fluctuates region to region, it makes it crystal clear what each scythe’s responsibility to the world is.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
Unemployment levels have fluctuated throughout the summer from a mixture of slow hiring with relatively few major rounds of layoffs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
His salary has fluctuated with different jobs, and he has been a student, but the CMS has often struggled to keep up, he told us.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Equity markets fluctuated ahead of the CPI release, though Seoul enjoyed another strong day as it claws back some of the huge tech-led losses sustained in July.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
For most of the past decade that gap fluctuated between $10 and $15 a barrel.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
Not only did variation and dip diverge from place to place, but in 1634 a group of English experimenters claimed that variation fluctuated over time.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Investors have increasingly turned to healthcare and biopharma stocks this summer as part of a rotation away from the fluctuating performance of tech and semiconductor stocks.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
Taipei, Singapore, Jakarta and and Wellington were also up, with Manila fluctuating.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
What the polls generally failed to foresee—and arguably shouldn’t have been expected to, given the fluctuating field—was that just enough voters would ultimately coalesce behind Crowley to put him over the top.
From Slate ● Aug. 12, 2026
These adaptations evolved to optimize energy storage and usage in environments with fluctuating food availability.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026
Simultaneously, they seek to minimize their risk of starving: moderate but reliable returns are preferable to a fluctuating lifestyle with a high time-averaged rate of return but a substantial likelihood of starving to death.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
