refluctuation

R1E1F4L1U1C3T1U1A1T1I1O1N1

noun

A flowing back; refluence; ebbing.

Scrabble 18

Meanings

nounrefluctuation (usually uncountable, plural refluctuations)

plural refluctuations

  1. uncountableusuallyA flowing back; refluence; ebbing.
    3 more examples

    Now the Reason, or rather the Cause from whence this Imbecility or Weakness of the Head did proceed is, for as much as there is a Penury or lake of Spirits by their Refluctuation to their proper Fountain and Center, and that occasion'd by Sleep, they are not so quickly and readily distributed and diffused again through the Organs of the Senses.

    1681, William Salmon, Iatrica: seu, Praxis Medendi. The practice of curing, page 98

    And it is more probable, that the Impressions made upon our Organs produce an Undulation and Refluctuation of the Spirits, or of Newton's materia subtilis in the Nervous Fibrils, which reaching the Sensorium, gives us the Ideas of objects; than that these Ideas should be excited by these Vibrations themselves."

    1752, William Porterfield, “An Essay concerning the Motions of our Eyes”, in Medical Essays and Observations, volume 3, page 165

    It is striking that the "sensorial motions" do not hinge on vibration or the flow of the spirit like the inflowing of animal spirits through the nerves to the muscles ("The sensorial motions...are not here supposed to be flutuations or refluctuation of the spirit of animation; nor are they supposed to be vibrations or revibrations") , but on the motions “peculiar to life."

    2016, Hisao Ishizuka, Fiber, Medicine, and Culture in the British Enlightenment, page 145
  2. uncountableusuallyA return or resurgence.

    […] production during years of stress, and its comparative refluctuation when social conditions are easy and prosperous.

    1946, Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art, page 54
    1 more example

    But he is not even sure that this is the real spring of his hesitancy, it is rather the refluctuation of old emotions; and he would prefer to escape.

    1956, Advocate - Volumes 140-142, page 20

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

refluctuation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/refluctuation

MLA

“refluctuation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/refluctuation. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “refluctuation,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/refluctuation.

Source: refluctuation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.