fickle
Use Fickle in a sentence
əl adjective
1.
likely to change, especially due to caprice, irresolution, or instability; casually changeable: fickle weather.
2.
not constant or loyal in affections: a fickle lover.
Origin:
before 1000; Middle English fikel, Old English ficol deceitful, akin to fācen treachery, fician to deceive, gefic deception
before 1000; Middle English fikel, Old English ficol deceitful, akin to fācen treachery, fician to deceive, gefic deception
Related forms
fick·le·ness, noun
un·fick·le, adjective
Synonyms
1. unstable, unsteady, variable, capricious, fitful. 2. inconstant. 1, 2. Fickle, inconstant, capricious, vacillating describe persons or things that are not firm or steady in affection, behavior, opinion, or loyalty. Fickle implies an underlying perversity as a cause for the lack of stability: the fickle seasons, disappointing as often as they delight; once lionized, now rejected by a fickle public. Inconstant suggests an innate disposition to change: an inconstant lover, flitting from affair to affair. Capricious implies unpredictable changeability arising from sudden whim: a capricious administration constantly and inexplicably changing its signals; a capricious and astounding reversal of position. Vacillating means changeable due to lack of resolution or firmness: an indecisive, vacillating leader, apparently incapable of a sustained course of action.
1. unstable, unsteady, variable, capricious, fitful. 2. inconstant. 1, 2. Fickle, inconstant, capricious, vacillating describe persons or things that are not firm or steady in affection, behavior, opinion, or loyalty. Fickle implies an underlying perversity as a cause for the lack of stability: the fickle seasons, disappointing as often as they delight; once lionized, now rejected by a fickle public. Inconstant suggests an innate disposition to change: an inconstant lover, flitting from affair to affair. Capricious implies unpredictable changeability arising from sudden whim: a capricious administration constantly and inexplicably changing its signals; a capricious and astounding reversal of position. Vacillating means changeable due to lack of resolution or firmness: an indecisive, vacillating leader, apparently incapable of a sustained course of action.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To fickle
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Fickle
is an SAT word you need to know.
So is colloquial. Does it mean:
| characteristic of or appropriate to ordinary or familiar conversation rather than formal speech or writing; informal |
| harsh discordance of sound; dissonance: |
Collins
World English Dictionary
fickle (ˈfɪkəl) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —adj | |
| changeable in purpose, affections, etc; capricious | |
| [Old English ficol deceitful; related to fician to wheedle, befician to deceive] | |
| 'fickleness | |
| —n | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History
fickle
O.E. ficol "deceitful," related to befician "deceive," and to facen "deceit, treachery." Common Gmc. (cf. O.S. fekan, O.H.G. feihhan "deceit, fraud, treachery"), from PIE *peig- "evil-minded, treacherous, hostile" (cf. L. piget "it irks, troubles, displeases," piger "reluctant, lazy"). Sense of "changeable"
is first recorded late 13c. Related: Fickleness.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Example sentences
Popularizing science is a tough, fine, fickle line between too simple and too complex.
The trouble is that interferometers are notoriously fickle.
The virtual economy is both a powerful and fickle one.
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