Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Fluctuate |
FluctuateVerb1. Move in an unstable manner. 2. Be unstable; have ups and downs; "The stock market fluctuates". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "fluctuate" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Synonyms: FluctuateSynonyms: vacillate (v), waver (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Changeableness | Verb: fluctuate, vary, waver, flounder, flicker, flitter, flit, flutter, shift, shuffle, shake, totter, tremble, vacillate, wamble, turn and turn about, ring the changes; sway to and fro, shift to and fro; change and change about; waffle, blow with the wind (irresolute); oscillate; vibrate between, two extremes, oscillate between, two extremes; alternate; have as man phases as the moon. |
Evolution | Fluctuate, dance, curvet, reel, quake; quiver, quaver; shake, flicker; wriggle; roll, toss, pitch; flounder, stagger, totter; move up and down, bob up and down; AdVerb: pass and repass, ebb and flow, come and go; vacillate; teeter. |
Irresolution | Vacillate; change; retract; fluctuate; pendulate; alternate; (oscillate); keep off and on, play fast and loose; blow hot and cold; (caprice). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Fluctuate |
| English words defined with "fluctuate": firm, float, Fluctuability, Fluctuated ♦ In chief ♦ Sound currency, steady ♦ unfluctuating. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "fluctuate": financial futures, flat rate, fluctuating firm price ♦ Proportion of faith, proportional rate. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "fluctuate": Fluctuant. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Fluctuate" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. Latin (be agitated, be in doubt, float, fluctuate, hesitate, restless, rise in waves, surge, swell, undulate, waver). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | People change, hairstyles change, interest rates fluctuate. (Top Secret!; writing credit: Jim Abrahams; David Zucker) Weight can fluctuate from year to year (The Santa Clause; writing credit: Leonardo Benvenuti; Steve Rudnick) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Play | Caption |
 | Agitate; alternate; bob; bounce; buffet; flap; flicker; fluctuate; flutter; heave; jerk; jounce; oscillate; palpitate; pitch; pound; pulsate; pulse; quake; quaver; quiver; ripple; shake; shiver; swing; thrill; throb; thump; tremble; twitch; undulate; vibr. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Blood glucose levels tend to fluctuate greatly with this condition. (references) | |
FSH levels tend to fluctuate during perimenopause, so these test results alone are not used to diagnose menopause. (references) | ||
Here, symptoms usually begin between the ages of 25 and 40 and may worsen with straining or any activity that causes cerebrospinal fluid pressure to fluctuate suddenly. (references) | ||
Business | This intense competition also causes profit margins to fluctuate widely. (references) | |
The polypropylene resin market was active in the first half of this year, but its price did not fluctuate greatly. (references) | ||
For example, preliminary fees for granting a lease fluctuate between zero and 40 percent of the net value of the leased property. (references) | ||
Economic History | Bahrain | Class B capital will fluctuate according to the volume of business. (references) |
Venezuela | The bolivar is allowed to fluctuate plus or minus 7.5 percent around a central parity. (references) | |
Turkey | Embassy purchases are made at prevailing market rates, which fluctuate wildly, given Turkey's free floating exchange rate regime. (references) | |
Political Economy | Nepal | Over the past five years Nepal-India relations have fluctuated and most likely will continue to fluctuate for the foreseeable future. (references) |
HUNGARY | Hungary widened the intervention band for the forint from _ 2.25 to _ 15 percent on May 4, 2001, and eliminated the crawling peg on October 1, 2001. These changes have allowed the forint to fluctuate freely within the larger band. (references) | |
SINGAPORE | The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) manages the Singapore dollar against a basket of currencies of Singapore's main trading partners and competitors, and the trade-weighted exchange rate is allowed to fluctuate within an undisclosed policy band. (references) | |
Trade | Ukraine | Currently, the official exchange rate, auction rate, and "street" rate fluctuate at similar levels. (references) |
Travel | Ghana | These prices do not remain fixed throughout the year but are revised as crude prices fluctuate. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Fluctuate" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 68.87% of the time. "Fluctuate" is used about 106 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 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 68.87% | 73 | 39,105 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 29.25% | 31 | 62,296 |
| Noun (singular) | 0.94% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 0.94% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 106 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; 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 |
fluctuate | 3 |
daily fluctuate important in it keep mind price stock that | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "fluctuate"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | vjen valë-valë, luhatet (waver). (various references) | |
Arabic | تموج (corrugate, ripple, roll, ruffle, stream, undulate, undulation, vibration, wave), تقلب (alteration, change, fickleness, float, fluctuation, flux, inconsistency, inconstancy, levity, oscillate, oscillation, swing, toss, tumble, turn, variation, versatility, vicissitude, welter), تأرجح (fluctuation, hover, overbalance, pitch, rock, rocking, seesaw, sway, swing, teeter, vacillate, vacillation), تردد (ambivalence, backwards, balance, be in two minds, boggle, crane, demur, difficulty, dither, fainting, falter, flicker, float, fluctuation, hang, haunt, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitate, hesitation, hover, hum and haw, indecision, irresolution, pause, perplexity, puzzle over, reticence, reverberate, scruple, shilly shally, sound, stick, stop, stumble, tergiversation, timidity, vacillate, vacillation, vibrate, vibration, waver, wobble, worry). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | раздвижвам (agitate, jog, quicken, rouse, shake up, stir, stir up trouble, wake, whip up, work on, work up), колебая се (balance, boggle, chop, crane, demur, dilly dally, dither, falter, hang back, hesitate, hover, hum and haw, jib, pause, pendulate, scruple, seesaw, shilly shally, teeter, vacillate, vibrate, waver, whiffle, wobble, yo-yo), варирам (range, vary), правя да варира, движа се (bear, forge ahead, get about, go, heave, move, navigate, ride, run, set, stir, travel, walk, work). (various references) | |
Chinese | 變幻 (change irregularly), 动摇 (destabilise, destabilize, Fluctuated, fluctuating, shake-up), 波動 (undulate, wave motion). (various references) | |
Czech | fluktuovat, kolísat (falter, oscillate, shake, stagger, sway, vacillate, vary, waver, wobble). (various references) | |
Danish | ved turbulent stroemning forstaar man en instationaer, tilfaeldig vaeskebevaegelse, hvor hastighederne varierer omkring en middelvaerdi og stroemningen er hvirvelagtig (by turbulent flow is meant an unsteady, random motion of fluids in which the velocities fluctuate about a mean and the flows are in the form of turbulences). (various references) | |
Dutch | onder turbulentie verstaat men een steeds veranderende onregelmatige vloeistofbeweging met om een gemiddelde schommelende snelheden en stromingen in wervekvorm (by turbulent flow is meant an unsteady, random motion of fluids in which the velocities fluctuate about a mean and the flows are in the form of turbulences). (various references) | |
Finnish | vaihdella (alternate, range, vary, vary between ... and), kellua (float), heilahdella (oscillate, sway, swing). (various references) | |
French | fluctuer, s'hésiter, se fluctuer. (various references) | |
German | schwanken (vacillate, hesitate, sway, waver, wobble). (various references) | |
Greek | κυμαίνομαι (undulate, waver). (various references) | |
Hebrew | לעלות ולרדת (see-saw), להתגלין (ripple, undulate), להתנודד (stagger, sway, teeter, totter, vacillate, vibrate, waver), להתנדנד (oscillate, rock, seesaw, sway, swing, teeter). (various references) | |
Hungarian | tétovázik (to vacillate), ingadozik (to vacillate). (various references) | |
Indonesian | bergoyang (away, oscillate, rock, wobble), bergejolak (flare up), berfluktuasi, berayun-ayun. (various references) | |
Italian | fluttuare (float, flutter, ride, rise and fall, stream, waver), variare (vary), oscillare (balance, dither, flicker, jiggle, oscillate, range, rock, seesaw, sway, swing, vacillate, wabble, waver, wobble). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 動く (to move, to shake, to shift, to stir, to swing). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | うごく (to be influenced, to be touched, to be transferred, to change, to fluctuate, to go, to move, to operate, to run, to shake, to shift, to stir, to swing, to vary, to waver, to work). (various references) | |
Korean | 변동하십시요. (various references) | |
Manx | leaystey (balancing, bank, boggle, brandish, dangle, fluctuating, heel, hesitate, hesitating, hesitation, loll, lolling, oscillate, oscillation, reel, reeling, rock, rocking, roll, see-saw, sway, swaying, swerve, swing, swing back, swinging, vacillate, vacillating, vacillation, waddle; wavering, waddling; fluctuation), kirkinagh (fluctuating, inconstant, waverer, wavering). (various references) | |
Norwegian | variere, svinge. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | uctuateflay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | flutuar (float, swim), variar (vary), vacilar (waver), oscilar (flap, float, oscillate, poise, quake, shimmy, sway, swing, totter, vacillate, wabble, wave, waver, wobble), hesitar (hesitate, waver). (various references) | |
Romanian | fluctua (vacillate, waver), varia (alter, change, chop, diversify, medley, varia, vary), ezita (hesitate), şovãi (back, boggle, falter, hang back, hesitate, linger, pause, shilly shally, shuffle, spare, stagger, vacillate, waver). (various references) | |
Russian | колебаться (oscillate, vacillate, waver, whiffle). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | fluktuirati, kolebati se (dilly dally, dillydally, pause, vacillate, waver). (various references) | |
Spanish | fluctuar (oscillate, waver), oscilar (oscillate), hacer fluctuaciones. (various references) | |
Swedish | vackla (sway, totter, vacillate, waver). (various references) | |
Thai | ผันผวน. (various references) | |
Turkish | kararsız olmak (back and fill, be hazy about, be in two minds, be uncertain, be vague about smth., dither, doubt, pendulate, seesaw, vacillate), inip çıkmak (balance, pump, seesaw, undulate), dalgalanmak (balance, float, flourish, flutter, fly, ripple, ruffle, shiver, stream, surge, undulate, wave, whip), düzensiz hareket etmek (flutter), bocalamak (be in two minds, falter, flounder, fluster, get confused, halt, oscillate, stagger, teeter, vacillate, waver, wobble). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | колихатися (wave, waver), коливатися (nutate, oscillate, quake, shimmy, sway, teeter, thrill, vacillate, veer, wabble, wobble), вагатися (balance, boggle, deliberate, demur, dilly dally, falter, halt, hesitate, hover, oscillate, pause, stagger, vacillate, vibrate, waver, whiffle). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | fluctuabat, fluctuantem, fluctuantes, fluctuate, fluctuatur, varia, variari, varias, variat, variatas, variavit, vario. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Isaiah Chapter 29, Verse 9 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Ekluqhte kai eksthte kai kraipalhsate ouk apo sikera oude apo oinou |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Obstupescite et admiramini fluctuate et vacillate inebriamini et non a vino movemini et non ebrietate |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | Bicometh alle stoneid, and wndreth; flotereth, and wagereth; `be ye drunken inwardli, and not of wyn; yee be moued, and not with drunkenesse. |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | Be surprised and full of wonder; let your eyes be covered and be blind: be overcome, but not with wine; go with uncertain steps, but not because of strong drink. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Isaiah Chapter 29, Verse 9 |
| Cebuano | ¶ Maghulat kamo ug manghibulong; panagkalipay kamo ug managpangabuta kamo: sila nangahubog, apan dili sa vino; sila nanagsamparay apan dili sa maisug nga ilimnon. |
| Chinese | 你 們 等 候 驚 奇 罷 ． 你 們 宴 樂 昏 迷 罷 ． 他 們 醉 了 、 卻 非 因 酒 ． 他 們 東 倒 西 歪 、 卻 非 因 濃 酒 。 |
| Croatian | Stanite, skamenite se od èuda, oslijepite i obnevidite! Pijani su, ali ne od vina, posræu, ali ne od silna piæa. |
| Danish | Undres og studs, stir jer kun blinde, vær drukne uden Vin og rav uden Drik! |
| Dutch | Zij vertoeven, daarom verwondert u; zij zijn vrolijk, derhalve roept gijlieden; zij zijn dronken, maar niet van wijn; zij waggelen, maar niet van sterken drank. |
| Finnish | Hämmästykää ja ihmetelkää, tuijottakaa sokeiksi itsenne ja sokeiksi jääkää! He ovat juovuksissa, vaikkeivät viinistä, hoipertelevat, vaikkeivät väkijuomasta. |
| French | Soyez stupéfaits et étonnés! Fermez les yeux et devenez aveugles! Ils sont ivres, mais ce n`est pas de vin; Ils chancellent, mais ce n`est pas l`effet des liqueurs fortes. |
| German | Erstarret und werdet bestürzt, verblendet euch und werdet blind! Werdet trunken, doch nicht vom Wein, taumelt, doch nicht von starkem Getränk! |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Teruslah keheran-heranan dan menutup mata seperti orang buta! Jadilah mabuk, tetapi bukan karena minum anggur. Berjalanlah terhuyung-huyung, tetapi bukan karena minum arak. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Biarlah kamu berdiri dengan tercengang-cengang, biarlah kamu memandang seorang akan seorang dengan heranmu. Bahwa mabuklah mereka itu, tetapi bukan oleh air anggur, mereka itu berhuyung-huyung, tetapi bukan oleh minuman yang keras. |
| Italian | Stupite pure così da restare sbalorditi, chiudete gli occhi in modo da rimanere ciechi; ubriacatevi ma non di vino, barcollate ma non per effetto di bevande inebrianti. |
| Maori | ¶ E tu koutou, e miharo; e hari, a ka matapo: e haurangi ana ratou, ehara ia i te waina; e hurori ana, engari ehara i te wai kaha. |
| Norwegian | Stirr på hverandre og bli forvirret! Stirr eder blinde, og vær blinde! I er drukne, men ikke av vin; I raver, men ikke av sterk drikk. |
| Portuguese | Pasmai, e maravilhai-vos; cegai-vos e ficai cegos; bêbedos estão, mas não de vinho, andam cambaleando, mas não de bebida forte. |
| Rumanian | ,,Rqmkneyi kncremeniyi wi uimiyi! Knchideyi ochii wi fiyi orbi!`` ,,Ei sknt beyi; dar nu de vin; se clatinq, dar nu din pricina bquturilor tari. |
| Spanish | Quedad asombrados y maravillaos; cegaos y quedad ciegos. Embriagaos, pero no con vino; tambaleaos, pero no con licor. |
| Swedish | Stån där med häpnad, ja, varen häpna; stirren eder blinda, ja, varen blinda, I som ären druckna, men icke av vin, I som raglen, men icke av starka drycker. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "fluctuate": fluctuated, fluctuates. (additional references) | |
| |
"Fluctuate" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: fluctaute, fluctiate, fluctuare, fluctuat, flucuate, flutuate, fluxtuate, fructuate, Fukutake. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "fluctuate" (pronounced flu"kkhuwā't) |
| 6 | -k kh u w ā' t | actuate. |
| 5 | -kh u w ā' t | perpetuate. |
| 3 | -w ā' t | antiquate, counterweight, deadweight, featherweight, heavyweight, hundredweight, middleweight, paperweight, underweight, welterweight. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-f-l-t-t-u-u" | |
-2 letters: tactful. | |
-3 letters: cattle, cutlet, cuttle, faucet, fecula, tectal. | |
-4 letters: acute, cleat, cleft, culet, eclat, facet, fault, fecal, fetal, flute, latte, lutea, tacet, tecta. | |
-5 letters: alec, alef, cafe, calf, cate, caul, celt, clef, clue, cult, cute, face, fact, fate, feal, feat, felt, feta, flat, flea, flue, fuel, lace, late, leaf, left, luau, luce, lute, tace. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-f-l-t-t-u-u" | |
+1 letter: fluctuated, fluctuates. | |
+5 letters: counterfactual. | |
| 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. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
