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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 Europeans, awakened to the danger of American inconstancy, are scrambling to spend trillions more on defense in coming years. Adam Rasmi, Time, 20 June 2025 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inconstancy
Noun
  • Researchers set out to explore why public reactions to celebrity infidelity vary so widely.
    Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 8 July 2025
  • The source also claimed that there were multiple instances of infidelity.
    Jason Pham, StyleCaster, 8 July 2025
Noun
  • Some of the symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, joint and muscle pains, weight fluctuations, depression, anxiety and hair loss.
    Michelle Lee, People.com, 11 July 2025
  • Rising food and labor costs, staffing shortages, and commercial rent fluctuations continue to affect long-term sustainability in the hospitality industry.
    Nia Bowers, USA Today, 10 July 2025
Noun
  • After Swaggart accused Gorman of adultery, Gorman hired a private investigator who followed Swaggart and took the photographs in New Orleans that ignited the scandal.
    Muri Assunção, New York Daily News, 1 July 2025
  • Every look with such an irregular desire is in our Savior’s opinion a virtual adultery. . . .
    Merve Emre, New Yorker, 16 June 2025
Noun
  • According to SpaceX, the cause of the seventh flight’s failure was stronger-than-expected rhythmic oscillations, causing leaks of propellant that caught fire.
    Karoline Leonard, Austin American Statesman, 4 July 2025
  • Brainwaves, or neural oscillations, are regular patterns created by firing neurons or groups of neurons.
    Eva Amsen, Forbes.com, 19 May 2025
Noun
  • In the process, the land is torn apart by fierce rivals, shifting loyalties, and bloody betrayals.
    Matt Grobar, Deadline, 14 July 2025
  • This year’s cast delivered all the twists and betrayals fans expect, and also helped create something unexpected: a new kind of community event.
    Cynthia Salinas Cappellano, CNN Money, 13 July 2025
Noun
  • Trump, the most unrelenting figure in American politics, doesn't forgive disloyalty.
    Jesus Mesa, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 June 2025
  • More cunningly, this also serves to instill you with guilt: as though refusing to align with their viewpoints equates to a signal of disloyalty.
    Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 31 May 2025
Noun
  • Their perfidy is memorialized in the English language, though.
    Evan Osnos, New Yorker, 26 May 2025
  • The prior month, Vice President JD Vance had lodged his own complaints about Europe’s alleged perfidy, threatening that the United States might withdraw its security guarantees from Europe if the EU continued to aggressively regulate U.S. tech companies.
    ANU BRADFORD, Foreign Affairs, 21 Apr. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Inconstancy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inconstancy. Accessed 20 Jul. 2025.

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