Library / English Dictionary

FLUCTUATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be unstable

Example:

The stock market fluctuates

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "fluctuate" is one way to...):

change state; turn (undergo a transformation or a change of position or action)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

fluctuation (the quality of being unsteady and subject to changes)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern

Example:

the line on the monitor vacillated

Synonyms:

fluctuate; vacillate; waver

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "fluctuate" is one way to...):

swing (alternate dramatically between high and low values)

Verb group:

fluctuate (cause to fluctuate or move in a wavelike pattern)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

fluctuation (an instance of change; the rate or magnitude of change)

fluctuation (a wave motion)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cause to fluctuate or move in a wavelike pattern

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "fluctuate" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

Verb group:

fluctuate; vacillate; waver (move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

fluctuation (a wave motion)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The late George Gaylord Simpson, a geoscientist at UA and an influential evolutionary thinker of the last century, proposed that these fluctuating dependencies should determine the speed of evolution.

(Colorful bird feathers offer evolutionary clues, National Science Foundation)

Better understanding of the phenomenon’s effect on crops could help farmers diversify to more adaptable crops such as tuber vegetables or sorghum, and adopt farming practices to cope with fluctuating weather patterns.

(El Niño linked to widespread crop failures, SciDev.Net)

The research team measured the processes of current pathway formation, retention and deactivation while electric current was flowing through the network and found that these processes always fluctuate as they progress, similar to the human brain’s memorization, learning, and forgetting processes.

(Neuromorphic Metallic Nanowire Network Shows Human Brain-Like Functions, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

But her temper was fluctuating; joy for a few instants shone in her eyes, but it continually gave place to distraction and reverie.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

My application was at first fluctuating and uncertain; it gained strength as I proceeded and soon became so ardent and eager that the stars often disappeared in the light of morning whilst I was yet engaged in my laboratory.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I think that voice held him most with its fluctuating, feverish warmth because it couldn't be over-dreamed—that voice was a deathless song.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Da Fontano the promoter came there, and Ed Legros and James B. (Rot-Gut) Ferret and the De Jongs and Ernest Lilly—they came to gamble and when Ferret wandered into the garden it meant he was cleaned out and Associated Traction would have to fluctuate profitably next day.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)