fickle

adjective

fick·​le ˈfi-kəl 

: marked by lack of steadfastness, constancy, or stability : given to erratic changeableness

fickleness noun

fickly

ˈfi-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

Synonyms

• capricious
• changeable
• changeful
• flickery
• fluctuating
• fluid
• inconsistent
• inconstant
• mercurial
• mutable
• skittish
• temperamental
• uncertain
• unpredictable
• unsettled
• unstable
• unsteady
• variable
• volatile

Choose the Right Synonym for fickle

inconstant, fickle, capricious, mercurial, unstable mean lacking firmness or steadiness (as in purpose or devotion).

inconstant implies an incapacity for steadiness and an inherent tendency to change.

an inconstant friend

fickle suggests unreliability because of perverse changeability and incapacity for steadfastness.

performers discover how fickle fans can be

capricious suggests motivation by sudden whim or fancy and stresses unpredictability.

an utterly capricious critic

mercurial implies a rapid changeability in mood.

made anxious by her boss's mercurial temperament

unstable implies an incapacity for remaining in a fixed position or steady course and applies especially to a lack of emotional balance.

too unstable to hold a job

Examples of fickle in a Sentence

The Weak will suck up to the Strong, for fear of losing their jobs and their money and all the fickle power they wielded only twenty-four hours ago. —Hunter S. Thompson, Rolling Stone, 11 Nov. 2004

The corporate fan who has replaced the core fan is a fickle beast, choosy about which games he'll use his precious free time to attend. —E. M. Swift, Sports Illustrated, 15 May 2000

A failed play was a denial of what Odets was owed, for he was chasing the public no differently than did his bourgeois and nonrevolutionary contemporaries, a public as fickle as it always was and is. —Arthur Miller, Harper's, March 1999

War is like hard-drug abuse or a fickle lover, an apparently contradictory bolt of compulsion, agony and ecstasy that draws you back in the face of better judgment time and time again. —Anthony Loyd, My War Gone By, 1999

He blames poor sales on fickle consumers.

a fickle friendship that was on and off over the years

Recent Examples on the Web

However, Gascón could still back away from that plan in the next few hours due to sharp divisions in his office, individuals close to events caution of the fickle prosecutor. —Dominic Patten, Deadline, 24 Oct. 2024

This furious search for a fickle sliver of the country has grown more urgent because the presidential contest is as close as any since the advent of modern polling, with the two candidates nearly deadlocked across the battleground states. —New York Times, The Mercury News, 22 Oct. 2024

As with many innovative food companies, prices will depend on the ability to scale up, and that will depend on a fickle market. —Christine Ro, Forbes, 20 Oct. 2024

Building and deploying wind, solar, hydroelectric, and nuclear infrastructure takes time and sometimes the sun, wind, and rain are geographically fickle. —Dan Ikenson, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English fikel deceitful, inconstant, from Old English ficol deceitful; akin to Old English befician to deceive, and probably to Old English fāh hostile — more at foe

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

fickle

adjective

fick·​le ˈfik-əl 

: likely to change frequently without good reason : inconstant

fickle friends

fickleness noun

fickly

ˈfik-(ə-)lē 

adverb