FLUCTUATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fluctuation mean? 

• FLUCTUATION (noun)
  The noun FLUCTUATION has 3 senses:

1. a wave motion

2. an instance of change; the rate or magnitude of change

3. the quality of being unsteady and subject to changes

  Familiarity information: FLUCTUATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLUCTUATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A wave motion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

the fluctuations of the sea

Hypernyms ("fluctuation" is a kind of...):

undulation; wave ((physics) a movement up and down or back and forth)

Derivation:

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

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

An instance of change; the rate or magnitude of change

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

fluctuation; variation

Hypernyms ("fluctuation" is a kind of...):

alteration; change; modification (an event that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fluctuation"):

vicissitude (a variation in circumstances or fortune at different times in your life or in the development of something)

allomerism ((chemistry) variability in chemical composition without variation in crystalline form)

departure; deviation; difference; divergence (a variation that deviates from the standard or norm)

permutation; replacement; substitution; switch; transposition (an event in which one thing is substituted for another)

business cycle; trade cycle (recurring fluctuations in economic activity consisting of recession and recovery and growth and decline)

daily variation (fluctuations that occur between one day and the next)

diurnal variation (fluctuations that occur during each day)

tide (something that may increase or decrease (like the tides of the sea))

Derivation:

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

Sense 3

Meaning:

The quality of being unsteady and subject to changes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

fluctuation; wavering

Context example:

he kept a record of price fluctuations

Hypernyms ("fluctuation" is a kind of...):

irregularity; unregularity (not characterized by a fixed principle or rate; at irregular intervals)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fluctuation"):

scintillation (the twinkling of the stars caused when changes in the density of the earth's atmosphere produce uneven refraction of starlight)

Derivation:

fluctuate (be unstable)

 Context examples 

There are many buffers to the calcium fluctuations including membrane pumps and calcium-binding proteins that create discrete spatial control of its effectors and their targets.

(Calmodulin Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

The deposits serve as a watermark created by climate fluctuations as the Martian environment transitioned from a wetter one to the freezing desert it is today.

(NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds an Ancient Oasis on Mars, NASA)

Reconstructions of Earth's climate record have relied largely on summer conditions, charting fluctuations through vegetation-based samples, such as tree ring width, pollen and organisms that thrive in the warmer growing season.

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

Emma watched her through the fluctuations of this speech, and saw no alarming symptoms of love.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

A device designed to maintain a current at a specified level regardless of other fluctuations in the system.

(Current Limiter Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

The device or component failed due to fluctuations within the power supply (e.g. transient power, power spike, power dip, or power sequencing).

(Device Power Fluctuation Evaluation Result, Food and Drug Administration)

The Movement Disorder Society version of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) Functional impact of fluctuations.

(MDS-UPDRS - Functional Impact of Fluctuations, NCI Thesaurus)

The Movement Disorder Society version of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) Complexity of motor fluctuations.

(MDS-UPDRS - Complexity of Motor Fluctuations, NCI Thesaurus)

Testing the device for its immunity when subjected to positive and negative low amplitude voltage fluctuations.

(Device Voltage Fluctuation Testing Evaluation Method, Food and Drug Administration)

The researchers used gas chambers placed around tree trunks to estimate fluctuations in emissions at a small scale.

(Amazon trees are major source of methane emission, SciDev.Net)