Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Fickle |
FickleAdjective1. Marked by erratic changeableness in affections or attachments; "fickle friends"; "a flirt's volatile affections". 2. Liable to sudden unpredictable change; "erratic behavior"; "fickle weather"; "mercurial twists of temperament"; "a quicksilver character, cool and willful at one moment, utterly fragile the next". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "fickle" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
Synonyms: FickleSynonyms: erratic (adj), mercurial (adj), quicksilver(a) (adj), volatile (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Caprice | Adjective: capricious; erratic, eccentric, fitful, hysterical; full of whims; Noun: maggoty; inconsistent, fanciful, fantastic, whimsical, crotchety, kinky, particular, humorsome, freakish, skittish, wanton, wayward; contrary; captious; arbitrary; unconformable; penny wise and pound foolish; fickle; (irresolute); frivolous, sleeveless, giddy, volatile. |
Chance 2 | Noun: chance, indetermination, accident, fortune, hazard, hap, haphazard, chance medley, random, luck, raccroc, casualty, contingence, adventure, hit; fate; (necessity); equal chance; lottery; tombola; toss up; turn of the table, turn of the cards; hazard of the die, chapter of accidents, fickle finger of fate; cast of the dice, throw of the dice; heads or tails, flip of a coin, wheel of Fortune; sortes, sortes Virgilianae. |
Changeableness | Unstaid, inconstant; unsteady, unstable, unfixed, unsettled; fluctuating; Verb: restless; agitated; erratic, fickle; irresolute; capricious; touch and go; inconsonant, fitful, spasmodic; vibratory; vagrant, wayward; desultory; afloat; alternating; alterable, plastic, mobile; transient; wavering. |
Irresolution | Vacillating; Verb: unsteady; (changeable); unsteadfast, fickle, without ballast; capricious; volatile, frothy; light, lightsome, light-minded; giddy; fast and loose. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Fickle |
| English words defined with "fickle": Choiceful ♦ Fickly ♦ Gery, Giddy-paced ♦ Imperseverant ♦ Unconstant, Unsad ♦ Whiffle. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "fickle": SCSI voodoo. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "fickle": Unconstant. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | How fickle is woman (Gone with the Wind; writing credit: Margaret Mitchell; Sidney Howard) Holiday mood like fickle girl - privileged to change mind (Charlie Chan in Shanghai; writing credit: Robert Ellis; Gerard Fairlie) Fame is a fickle friend Harry (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; writing credit: Steven Kloves) | |
Lyrics | These fickle, fuddled words confuse me (The Space Between; performing artist: Dave Matthews Band) | |
Tongue Twisters | The fickle finger of fate flips fat frogs flat. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Females Is Fickle (1940) Felix Finds 'Em Fickle (1924) Fickle Women (1920) The Fickle Blacksmith (1918) Her Fickle Fortune (1917) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Charles Caleb Colton | Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food. |
Emily Dickinson | Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate. |
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne | Man in sooth is a marvelous vain, fickle, and unstable subject. |
Niccolo Machiavelli | Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | We are a puny and fickle folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our diseases. |
Virgil | A woman is always a fickle, unstable thing. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| "Fickle" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Fickle" is used about 128 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 128 | 28,261 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "fickle" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Fickle | Last name | 130 | 57,305 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expression using "fickle": fickle mindedness. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
fickle | 23 |
carrie fickle | 11 |
fickle finger of fate | 4 |
define fickle | 2 |
definition fickle | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "fickle"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i paqëndrueshëm (changeable, cranky, fluent, fluid, inconsequential, inconstant, infirm, labile, mutable, non-persistent, protean, rocky, soft, tipsy, tottering, unequable, unstable, unsteady, variable, volatile, waggly, wayward), i ndryshueshëm (alterable, changeable, changeful, flexible, inconstant, labile, mercurial, mobile, movable, mutable, protean, shifting, transitional, uncertain, unsettled, unstable, unsteady, variable, various, varying, vertiginous). (various references) | |
Arabic | متلون (changeable, inconstant, protean), متقلب (capricious, changeable, changeful, choppy, flighty, fluctuant, fluky, freakish, incalculable, inconsistent, inconstant, jumpy, mercurial, mobile, moody, mutable, reversible, rough and tumble, shaky, skittish, temperamental, unsettled, unstable, unsteady, variable, versatile, volatile, wavering, wayward, weather vane, whimsical, yeasty), متحول (changeable, inconstant, unstable, unsteady, variable), متغير (changeable, changeful, changing, inconstant, mutable, unsteady, variable, weathercock). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | капризен (capricious, erratic, faddish, fanciful, fantastic, fantastical, fastidious, fractious, freakish, freaky, fretful, ill, inconstant, maggoty, particular, petulant, skittish, tricksy, vagarious, vagrant, wayward, whimsical), непостоянен (astatic, capricious, casual, changeable, changeful, discontinuous, erratic, fluctuating, fluid, impermanent, inconstant, irregular, liquid, lubricous, mobile, mutable, non-persistent, seesaw, sporadic, streaky, uncertain, unequable, uneven, unreliable, unstable, unsteady, vagarious, variable, variant, volatile, wayward, whimsical, yo-yo), променчив (mercurial, mutable, variable). (various references) | |
Chinese | 薄情 (inconstant in love), 多變 , 善变. (various references) | |
Czech | nestálý (changeable, erratic, floating, impermanent, inconstant, passing, unceasing, unsettled, unstable, unsteady, volatile). (various references) | |
Finnish | vaihtelevainen (changeable, flighty, inconstant, variable, varied, varying), vaihteleva (changeable, flighty, inconstant, variable, varied, varying), huikentelevainen (fast, flighty, gay), häilyvä (faltering, inconstant, wavering). (various references) | |
French | inconstant, changeant. (various references) | |
German | wankelmütig (inconstant), schwankend (dizzily, faltering, firmless, fluctuating, hesitant, oscillating, pitching, rocking, rolling, seesawing, shakily, shaking, staggering, swaying, toddling, tottering, uncertain, uneven, unstable, unsteady, vacillating, varying, wavering, wobbling). (various references) | |
Greek | ευμετάβλητοσ (changeable, mercurial, mutable, protean, variable), ευμετάβλητος (changeable, inconstant), άστατοσ (capricious, flighty, floater, inconstant, mercurial, tergiversator, uncertain, unsettled, unstable, volatile, whiffler), ασταθής (unstable), αλλοπρόσαλλος (capricious, double-faced). (various references) | |
Hebrew | קל "עת (featherbrain, flighty, flippant, frivolous, light minded, lightheaded), פזיז (careless, harebrained, hasty, headlong, impetuous, impulsive, nimble, precipitous, rash, slapdash, slaphappy), "פכפך (fitful, inconstant, spineless, temperamental, turncoat, unsettled, wayward). (various references) | |
Hungarian | ingatag (flighty, fugacious, labile, mercurial, mutable, precarious, sandy, shaky, shilly-shally), bizonytalan (choppy, cranky, dicey, dim, dubious, elusive, equivocal, faint, faltering, have cold feet, hazy, hesitating, indefinite, indeterminate, insecure, irresolute, nondescript, obscure, pennky, precarious, questionable, sandy, scratchy, shaky, speculative, suspensive, to be in the air, to hang in the air, to hang in the balance, transcendental, uncertain, unsettled, unsteady, unsure, vague, woozy). (various references) | |
Indonesian | plin-plan, cedera (bickering, disagreement), cacau (inconstant). (various references) | |
Italian | volubile (changeable, skittish, unstable, unsteady, variable, volatile), mutevole (changeable, changing, flighty, inconstant, mercurial, mutable, protean, shifting, variable), leggero (agile, faint, flippant, light, mild, nimble, shallow, slight, soft, thin, thoughtless, weak), incostante (capricious, changeable, drifter, erratic, fitful, giddy, inconstant, unprincipled, variable). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 浮薄 (caprice, cold-heartedness, frivolous, insincere). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | きまぐれ (caprice, moody, uneven temper, whim, whimsy), ね"のめ, き'"かい (capricious), うわき (flighty, unfaithful, wanton), ふはく (caprice, cold-heartedness, frivolous, insincere), あきっぽい (capricious, soon wearied of), けいふ (frivolous, genealogy, pedigree, second husband, stepfather), はかない (empty, ephemeral, fleeting, miserable, momentary, short-lived, transient, vain). (various references) | |
Manx | teaymagh (capricious, fitful, freakish, humoursome, moody, notional, spasmodic, wavering, whimsical), missilagh (precarious, uncertain). (various references) | |
Norwegian | ustadig. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | icklefay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | versátil (flexile, flighty, versatile), instável (ambulatory, astatic, baffling, bumpy, changeable, erratic, kid-glove, labile, lubricous, mobile, mutable, off-balance, slippery, slippy, temperamental, ticklish, tippy, tottering, unreliable, unsound, unstable, unsteady, variable, wayward, wonky), inconstante (astatic, capricious, changeable, changeful, desultory, fanciful, flighty, giddy, impermanent, inconstant, light-minded, mutable, shifting, skittish, uncertain, unequable, unequal, unreliable, unstable, unsure, variable, versatile). (various references) | |
Romanian | fluşturatic (flighty, flippant, thoughtless, volatile), versatil (wavering), spulberatic (wanton), schimbãtor (capricious, catching, changeable, chequered, choppy, inconstant, mobile, Moody, moonish, mutable, shifty, slippery, switch, unequal, unsettled, unsteady, variable, varied, versatile, volatile), nestatornic (changeable, flyaway, giddy, lubricous, mobile, mutable, ticklish, unfaithful, unreliable, unstable, variably, versatile, volatile, wayward), inconstant (capricious, inconstant, unsteady, versatile), capricios (arbitrary, capricious, cranky, crotchety, difficult, fanciful, fancy, fantastic, fantastical, fitful, fractious, freakish, frolic, Froward, humoursome, peevish, perverse, vagarious, wanton, wayward, whimsical, whimsy). (various references) | |
Russian | непостоянный (casual, changeable, changeful, fast and loose, impermanent, inconstant, mercurial, mutable, unabiding, unstable, unsteady, variable, volatile, wanton). (various references) | |
Scottish | luaineach (inconstant, restless, uncertain). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | promenljiv (changeable, changing, declinable, impermanent, mutable, shifting, unsettled, unsteady, variable, variant, volatile), nestalan (changeable, erratic, fleeting, impermanent, inconsistent, inconstant, mercurial, shifty, skittish, transient, unabiding, unsteady, versatile, volatile, voluble). (various references) | |
Spanish | inconstante (erratic, inconstant, unstable, unsteady). (various references) | |
Swedish | ostadig (cranky, groggy, shaky, uncertain, unstable, unsteady, wobbly, wonky), lättsinnig (frivolous, giddy, irresponsible, light, light minded, light-headed, lightsome, naughty, sporty, thoghtless, trifling, wanton). (various references) | |
Thai | แปรปรวน. (various references) | |
Turkish | maymun iştahlı (desultory, flighty, temperamental, whimsey, whimsical, whimsy), kararsız (ambivalent, astatic, baffling, changeable, changeful, double-minded, doubtful, dubious, erratic, faltering, flighty, fluctuating, flukey, fluky, fluxional, halting, hazy, hesitant, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive, infirm, infirm of purpose, irresolute, precarious, restless, shilly shally, uncertain, uncommitted, undecided, undetermined, unresolved, unsettled, unstable, unsteady, vacillating, vagabond, vague, wayward, weak-kneed), gelgeç (flighty, inconstant, volatile), değişken (capricious, changeable, changeful, choppy, erratic, factor, fitful, flexible, flexile, fluid, fluxional, incalculable, inconsistent, inconstant, inequable, labile, mercurial, mobile, mutable, protean, shifting, sliding, streaked, streaky, swinging, uncertain, unfunded, unstable, unsteady, variable, variant, versatile), dönek (apostate, capricious, changeable, changeful, deserter, flukey, fluky, inconstant, lubricious, piker, protean, quitter, rat, Ratter, renegade, turnabout, turncoat, untrustworthy, versatile, volatile). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | несталий (catching, changeable, inconstant, mobile, mutable, transient, versatile), непостійний (ambulatory, capricious, changeable, changeful, flighty, impermanent, instable, mercurial, non-permanent, shifting, unstable, unsteady, variant, volatile, voluble, weathercock). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | không kiên định (chameleonic, instable, mercurial, mutable, seesaw, unstable, unsteadfast), hay thay đổi (changing, fizgig, flighty, fluky, humoursome, mutable, protean, unsteady, varying). (various references) | |
Welsh | oriog (changeable, inconstant), gwantan (feeble, poor, unsteady), gwamal (frivolous), didoreth (shiftless, silly), chwit-chwat (inconstant), anwastad (uneven, unstable), anwadal (changeable, unstable), ansefydlog (unsettled, unstable), ansafadwy (unstable), ansad (unstable, unsteady). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | ambigua, ambiguum, inconstans, inconstantia, levana, leve, levem, levi, levia, leviora, leviores, levis, levius, leviusque, mobilibus, mobilior, mobilis, ventosa. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "fickle": fickleness, ficklenesses, fickler, ficklest. (additional references) | |
| |
"Fickle" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: bickel, bickle, fakle, feckle, feclke, ficelle, Fick, fickel, ficken, ficle, Ficulle, fikle, finkle, firkle, fischli, flickle, fo'csle, frickel, fuckee, fuck'em, Kickle, Mickle, Nicklo, rickle. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "fickle" (pronounced fi"kul) |
| 4 | -i" k u l | brickle, stickle, Mickle, nickel, Nickle, Nicol, pickle, sickle, tickle, trickle. |
| 3 | -k u l | acoustical, aeronautical, agrochemical, allegorical, alphabetical, analytical, anarchical, anatomical, ankle, anthropological, antithetical, apolitical, archaeological, archeological, article, astrological, astronautical, astronomical, asymmetrical, atypical, autobiographical, barnacle, biblical, bicycle, bifocal, biochemical, biographical, biological, biomedical, biotechnological, botanical, buckle, cackle, categorical, cervical, chemical, Chronicle, chronological, chuckle, circle, classical, clavicle, clerical, clinical, comical, commonsensical, conical, coracle, cortical, crackle, critical, cubicle, cuticle, cycle, cyclical, cylindrical, cynical, debacle, dermatological, diabolical, diacritical, dialectical, domical, ducal, ecclesiastical, ecological, economical, ecumenical, egotistical, electrical, electrochemical, electromechanical, elliptical, empirical, encircle, encyclical, epidemiological, epochal, equivocal, eschatological, ethical, ethnical, etymological, evangelical, fanatical, farcical, fecal, fiscal, focal, follicle, freckle, galenical, geographical, geological, geometrical, geophysical, geopolitical, gonococcal, grackle, grammatical, granduncle, graphical, gynecological, hackle, heckle, helical, heretical, heterocercal, hierarchical, historical, honeysuckle, Huckle, hypercritical, hypocritical, hypothetical, hysterical, icicle, identical, ideological, illogical, immunological, impractical, Sokol, sparkle, speckle, spectacle, spherical, sprinkle, statistical, stereotypical, strategical, suckle, surgical, symmetrical, tabernacle, tackle, tactical, technical, technological, teleological, tentacle, testicle, theatrical, theological, inimical, ironical, jackal, knuckle, lackadaisical, lexical, liturgical, local, logical, logistical, lyrical, magical, maniacal, mathematical, matriarchal, mechanical, medical, meikle, metallurgical, metaphorical, metaphysical, meteorological, methodical, methodological, metrical, miracle, monocle, morphological, motorcycle, muckle, musical, mystical, mythical, mythological, nautical, neoclassical, neurological, nonelectrical, nonpolitical, nonsensical, nonsurgical, nontechnical, numerical, obstacle, ontological, optical, Oracle, oratorical, ornithological, paradoxical, particle, pathological, patriarchal, pedagogical, periodical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, pharmacological, philosophical, phonological, photochemical, physical, physiological, pinnacle, polemical, political, pontifical, popsicle, practical, preclinical, problematical, prototypical, psychical, psychological, pumpernickel, puritanical, quizzical, rabbinical, radical, radiological, ramshackle, rankle, rascal, receptacle, reciprocal, recycle, rhetorical, ruckle, runkle, sabbatical, satirical, semiclassical, semicylindrical, semitropical, serological, shackle, shekel, skeptical, sociological, theoretical, tinkle, topical, toxicological, tricycle, tropical, twinkle, typical, typographical, tyrannical, umbilical, uncle, uncritical, uneconomical, unequivocal, unethical, unicycle, unshackle, untypical, vehicle, vertical, viatical, virological, vocal, whimsical, Winkle, wrinkle, zoological. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-e-f-i-k-l" | |
-1 letter: fleck, flick. | |
-2 letters: ceil, clef, feck, fice, file, flic, kief, lice, lick, lief, life, like. | |
-3 letters: cel, elf, elk, fie, fil, ice, ick, ilk, kef, kif, lei, lek, lie. | |
-4 letters: ef, el, if, li. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-e-f-i-k-l" | |
+1 letter: fickler, flicked, flicker. | |
+2 letters: calflike, ficklest, firelock, flecking, flickers, flickery, flockier. | |
+3 letters: backfield, firelocks, flickered, flockiest, frecklier, freckling, frolicked. | |
+4 letters: backfields, backfilled, beflecking, blackflies, brickfield, fickleness, fiddleback, flackeries, flickering, freckliest. | |
+5 letters: blackfishes, brickfields, factorylike, fiddlebacks, fiddlestick, flyspecking, forcepslike, forelocking. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Familiar 7. Usage Frequency 8. Names: Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
