FLUCTUATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fluctuate mean? 

• FLUCTUATE (verb)
  The verb FLUCTUATE has 3 senses:

1. cause to fluctuate or move in a wavelike pattern

2. move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern

3. be unstable

  Familiarity information: FLUCTUATE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLUCTUATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they fluctuate    ... he / she / it fluctuates   
Past simple: fluctuated   
Past participle: fluctuated   
-ing form: fluctuating   

Sense 1

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

fluctuate; vacillate; waver

Context example:

the line on the monitor vacillated

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:

Be unstable

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The stock market fluctuates

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)

 Context examples 

The layer of connective tissue comprised of the endometrial lining of the uterus which fluctuates in thickness throughout the menstrual cycle.

(Endometrial Stroma, NCI Thesaurus)

The measurements were made between January and May 2011, when ethanol prices fluctuated sharply compared with gasoline prices.

(Ethanol to gasoline switch raises nanoparticles in air, SciDev.Net)

Her affections had continually been fluctuating but never without an object.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Historical term for a chronic, but fluctuating, disorder beginning in early life and characterized by recurrent and multiple somatic complaints not apparently due to physical illness.

(Hysteria, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

My courage and my resolution is firm; but my hopes fluctuate, and my spirits are often depressed.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Her family had of late been exceedingly fluctuating.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Ice cores drilled from a glacier in a cave in Transylvania offer new evidence of how Europe's winter weather and climate patterns fluctuated during the last 10,000 years, known as the Holocene period.

(Ice cave in Transylvania yields window into region's past, NSF)

Around 900 A.D., populations remained high but birth rates began to fluctuate.

(Scientists chart a baby boom in southwestern Native Americans from 500 to 1300 A.D., NSF)

Known as whistler mode chorus, these waves are created by fluctuating electric and magnetic fields.

(FIREBIRD II and NASA Mission Locate Whistling Space Electrons’ Origins, NASA)

Like all deserts, the boundaries of the Sahara fluctuate with the seasons, expanding in the dry winter and contracting during the wetter summer.

(New study finds world’s largest desert, the Sahara, has grown by 10 percent since 1920, National Science Foundation)