Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Subject to change or variation: variable.
  • adjective Medicine Capable of being moved or compressed. Used of an abnormal mass such as a tumor or abscess.
  • adjective Moving in waves.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Moving like a wave; fluctuating; wavering.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Moving like a wave; wavering.
  • adjective obsolete Floating on the waves.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective That fluctuates, or causes fluctuation

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin flūctuāns, flūctuant-, present participle of flūctuāre, to fluctuate; see fluctuate.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word fluctuant.

Examples

  • While traditional light sources are unreliable and sometimes even unsafe incandescent bulbs can sometimes explode due to fluctuant voltage, LED lights are durable, reliable, safe and efficient.

    System Led | Surveillance 2010

  • The atrocities of the Second World War coupled with developments in genetics, robotics, and space exploration (just to mention a few) are reflected in nihilism and existentialism philosophies, presenting the image of a man as a fluctuant entity, surrounded by relative values, incapable of seeking ultimate truths and haunted by the disintegration of ideologies that once he has held sacred.

    POSTMODERN LITERATURE: 2007

  • The first describeth the times of the militant Church, whether it be fluctuant, as the ark of Noah, or movable, as the ark in the wilderness, or at rest, as the ark in the Temple: that is, the state of the Church in persecution, in remove, and in peace.

    The Advancement of Learning 2003

  • If the swelling becomes fluctuant conduct an exploratory puncture with a large-bore needle which will reveal thick pus.

    Chapter 15 1993

  • Incision and drainage (I & D) should be performed once the abscess is "ripe" i.e. fluctuant upon gentle palpation.

    Chapter 15 1993

  • It is effortless enchantment moving through fluctuant states of thought and feeling….

    World’s Great Men of Color J. A. Rogers 1947

  • It is effortless enchantment moving through fluctuant states of thought and feeling….

    World’s Great Men of Color J. A. Rogers 1947

  • It is effortless enchantment moving through fluctuant states of thought and feeling….

    World’s Great Men of Color J. A. Rogers 1947

  • Incision and drainage (I & D) should be performed once the abscess is "ripe" i.e. fluctuant upon gentle palpation.

    Chapter 4 1989

  • When the swelling becomes fluctuant conduct an exploratory puncture with a largebore needle which, if the diagnosis is correct, will produce thick pus (Figure 25).

    Chapter 4 1989

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • The tide was at high slack, the breeze only a fluctuant cat's-paw.

    - Malcolm Lowry, October Ferry to Gabriola

    July 30, 2008