mercurial
adjective
changeable; volatile; fickle; flighty; erratic.
mercurially
-
a word derived from
mercurial.
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 AI-generated Angie seems a bit overdone when compared to the more conflicted human original, whose moodiness shifts mercurially between impudence and ambivalence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2025
Keaton gives a profoundly moving double-edged performance as a tersely melancholy has-been and, in flashbacks to the freewheeling days of slapstick silent short films, as the blank-faced, mercurially acrobatic master of uproar.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 30, 2019
As portrayed by the film’s writer and director, Noël Wells, Emily, while mercurially talented, has little idea where she’s going.
From New York Times ● Nov. 21, 2017
A born performer with a personality profile that might best be described as mercurially shy, Adams doubled as a free-associating stand-up comedian Monday.
From Washington Post
Then, mercurially, as though he’d read the letter, by God, for the last time in his life, he stuffed it like so much excelsior into its envelope.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
