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Definition
to alternately increase and decrease in quantity- "I'm not overweight. I fluctuate between chubby and curvy."
fluctuate = alternately increase and decrease in quantity
- The stock market fluctuates.
- My courage and my resolution is firm; but my hopes fluctuate, and my spirits are often depressed.Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein
- The frontiers between the three super-states are in some places arbitrary, and in others they fluctuate according to the fortunes of war, but in general they follow geographical lines.George Orwell -- 1984
- The cable was erected in 1970 to chart the Teklanika's seasonal fluctuations; hydrologists traveled back and forth above the river by means of an aluminum basket that is suspended from the cable with pulleys.Jon Krakauer -- Into the Wild
- 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.F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby
- But her temper was fluctuating; joy for a few instants shone in her eyes, but it continually gave place to distraction and reverie.Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein
- Eastasia, smaller than the others and with a less definite western frontier, comprises China and the countries to the south of it, the Japanese islands and a large but fluctuating portion of Manchuria, Mongolia, and Tibet.George Orwell -- 1984
- 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.Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein
- 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.F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby
- Her family had of late been exceedingly fluctuating.Jane Austen -- Sense and Sensibility
- Perhaps what we thought we saw was just an optical illusion, a mere reflection of a momentary fluctuation in the light streaming through the window.Haruki Murakami -- After Dark
- Far to the left Leamas caught sight of a fluctuating light just above the skyline, constantly altering in strength, like the reflection of a fire.John Le Carre -- The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
- The price of silver fluctuates; but the world supply of nickel is limited, and nickel's a sure thing.Grace MacGowan Cooke -- The Power and the Glory
- More precisely, they fluctuated between high optimism and extreme depression.Albert Camus -- The Plague
- Being with him wasn't without its frustrations for a woman accustomed to less fluctuating moods.Nora Roberts -- Summer Pleasures
- Thy resolution may fluctuate on the wild and changeful billows of human opinion, but mine is anchored on the Rock of Ages.Sir Walter Scott -- Ivanhoe
- So the changing, swaying emotions fluctuated in Venters's heart.Zane Grey -- Riders of the Purple Sage
- I fluctuate a little; that's the truth.Charles Dickens -- Bleak House
- Imprisonment had made channels for his character, which would never fluctuate as widely now as in the past.E.M. Forster -- A Passage to India
fluctuates = alternately increases and decreases
fluctuate = alternately increase and decrease
fluctuate = change back and forth
fluctuations = increases and decreases
fluctuating = changing
fluctuating = changing back and forth
fluctuating = alternately increasing and decreasing
fluctuate = change
(editor's note: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.)