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as in fluctuation
the frequent and usually sudden passing from one condition to another the inconstancy of public opinion is such that today's hero may be tomorrow's punching bag

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of inconstancy Years of naval inconstancy with repair work drove Vigor Industrial—a once vibrant and growing maritime conglomerate—into the welcoming arms of hedge funds, which wasted no time in striping the company of value. Craig Hooper, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2024 In the nineteen-nineties and two-thousands, as the center-left was evolving, the label was most effectively applied to those telegenic figures—Bill and Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, John Edwards—who were suspected of ideological inconstancy and of substituting polls for principles. Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2022 But, in the hands of the Fleet Foxes, the pastoral feels less like a particular zone in time and more like a space in which to parse ideas of self-reliance, the inconstancy of love, the pain of intimacy, the fear of loss, the sting of betrayal, and the strange but urgent project of hope. Brandon Taylor, The New Yorker, 17 Oct. 2022 Here, Calabazas appears to be holding a toy windmill in one hand and, in the other, a miniature portrait of a woman, perhaps intended by Velázquez as a commentary on the inconstancy of love. Washington Post, 22 Feb. 2023 Due to his inconstancy and Angie’s growing attachment, their flimsy relationship operated on a timescale of eras coalescing into matters of historical record. Hannah Gold, Harper’s Magazine , 26 Oct. 2022 Over the past 20 years, the United States has undermined its own global leadership by inconstancy. Damon Linker, The Week, 9 June 2021 An acidic trickle of disenchantment, especially regarding Bellow’s inconstancy with women and family, runs through it. David Remnick, The New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2021 Magill’s recollection, recounted in Blum’s Morgenthau biography, captures a typical moment of presidential inconstancy. Joseph Thorndike, Forbes, 9 Mar. 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inconstancy
Noun
  • Paquita la del Barrio rose to fame with her anthems about infidelity and heartbreak.
    Natalia Cano, Billboard, 21 Feb. 2025
  • The 27-year-old aired her frustrations out on X on Monday night (Feb. 17), seemingly accusing Trippie Redd of infidelity.
    DeMicia Inman, VIBE.com, 19 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • This flexibility makes the company less vulnerable to aluminum tariffs than companies like Keurig Dr Pepper, which relies heavily on the US market and is more exposed to domestic price fluctuations, Falorni said.
    Maria Sole Campinoti, CNN, 2 Mar. 2025
  • Modern AIOps learns to distinguish between normal network fluctuations and genuine threats.
    Karthik Sj, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • At the time of the case, Bryant admitted to adultery with a 19-year-old resort hotel worker in Colorado but denied the rape allegations, always maintaining that the encounter was consensual.
    George Ramsay, CNN, 8 Feb. 2025
  • The article included other remarks related to Carter’s faith − such as the importance of the separation of church and state, a conviction born of Carter’s Southern Baptist upbringing − but the adultery comment opened a rift with Carter’s kin in Christ.
    John Bacon, USA TODAY, 31 Dec. 2024
Noun
  • Features including warranty length, oscillation, and bonus accessories like a remote are also taken into consideration.
    Kat Merck, WIRED, 5 Feb. 2025
  • In Alzheimer's patients, however, these oscillations were disrupted and out of phase.
    Michael Franco, New Atlas, 3 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Today’s Paper | Subscribe Explore The New York Times Magazine Inside the Murdoch Succession Drama: More than 3,000 pages of documents reveal how years of betrayals led to a messy court battle that threatens the future of Rupert Murdoch’s empire.
    John Hodgman, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2025
  • But was the company’s downfall driven by federal interference, corporate betrayal or its own unsustainable ambitions?
    Javier Hasse, Forbes, 19 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Similarly, alienating a President seemingly intent on smashing anything approaching dissent or disloyalty is not a risk many Washington institutions are willing to take at the moment.
    Philip Elliott, TIME, 12 Feb. 2025
  • Another document, likely written by an officer, recorded acts of disloyalty by North Korean subordinates - a common practice in the totalitarian state, where citizens are encouraged to inform on each other.
    Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, 28 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • Those intrepid few who still clung to the belief that American perfidy shielded Duke’s players from true justice just had the rug pulled out from under them by Mangum herself.
    The Editors, National Review, 17 Dec. 2024
  • Putin inundates Ukraine’s airwaves with propaganda about the West’s perfidy, the West’s agonizingly slow and insufficient support of Ukraine, the West’s seeming willingness to bleed Ukraine as a proxy, Zelensky’s anti-democratic centralization of power, and the like.
    Melik Kaylan, Forbes, 9 Oct. 2024

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Cite this Entry

“Inconstancy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inconstancy. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.

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