Fluctuations

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Changes in levels or amounts manifest intermittently over time
2. Variations or shifts can be observed in quantities or conditions throughout a specified period
3. Irregular changes or variations in amount or degree occurring over intervals

Etymology: "Fluctuations" is the plural of "fluctuation", a noun whose root is the Latin verb "fluctuare", meaning to roll or surge like waves. That verb comes from "fluctus", a wave, and the same image of water in motion runs through the family: the English verb "fluctuate" was formed from the Latin stem, and the noun ending "-ion" turns the action into a state or process. The original picture is literal. A "fluctus" is a surging body of water, and to fluctuate was to be tossed up and down like the sea. English kept that sense of rising and falling movement but applied it to numbers, prices, temperatures and moods, so the idea of irregular up-and-down motion became the idea of quantities that never settle. The plural form here simply refers to many separate rises and falls over time.

Synonyms: variations, changes, oscillations, shifts, movements

Antonyms: stability, constancy, uniformity, consistency, persistence