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Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective inconstant differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of inconstant are capricious, fickle, mercurial, and unstable. While all these words 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

When could capricious be used to replace inconstant?

The meanings of capricious and inconstant largely overlap; however, capricious suggests motivation by sudden whim or fancy and stresses unpredictability.

an utterly capricious critic

Where would fickle be a reasonable alternative to inconstant?

While in some cases nearly identical to inconstant, fickle suggests unreliability because of perverse changeability and incapacity for steadfastness.

performers discover how fickle fans can be

When can mercurial be used instead of inconstant?

While the synonyms mercurial and inconstant are close in meaning, mercurial implies a rapid changeability in mood.

made anxious by her boss's mercurial temperament

When would unstable be a good substitute for inconstant?

The words unstable and inconstant can be used in similar contexts, but 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

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 inconstant The key finding is that as the distance grows greater, the coupling stops growing, and the inconstant constant becomes constant once more. Stanley J. Brodsky, Scientific American, 16 Apr. 2024 Energy experts have been warning that electricity is likely to get more expensive and less reliable unless renewable power that waxes and wanes under inconstant sunlight and wind is backed up by generators that can run whenever needed. IEEE Spectrum, 9 May 2024 In March, Johnson ordered the first national lockdown, caught COVID, and later spent three nights in the I.C.U. For months, the country staggered from one set of restrictions to the next—a reflection of Johnson’s inconstant attitude toward the virus. Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024 Song as a different kind of time, as heroin became her own inconstant clock. Elizabeth Barber, Harper's Magazine, 2 Feb. 2024 See All Example Sentences for inconstant
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inconstant
Adjective
  • Rising prices, fomenting trade wars, and uncertainty about when tariffs will go into effect has led to a volatile economic climate.
    Boone Ashworth, Wired News, 4 June 2025
  • Shortly after, Mars will square Uranus on June 15, creating a volatile energy between your desire for personal freedom and autonomy, versus unpredictable events that shake up your day-to-day routines and sense of stability.
    Valerie Mesa, People.com, 4 June 2025
Adjective
  • Michael Fassbender plays a British intelligence officer tasked with finding who leaked a top-secret software program and betrayed their country, and the list of five potentially traitorous suspects includes his own high-profile wife (Cate Blanchett).
    Brian Truitt, USA Today, 10 May 2025
  • Smith made out their former collaborators to be ungrateful and traitorous, and the kids weren't given the space to question her command.
    Zoey Lyttle, People.com, 18 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Entrepreneurs who want to survive must meet our current reality by staying as flexible as the market is unpredictable.
    Cynthia Pong, Forbes.com, 8 June 2025
  • Netflix offers premium, brand-safe content in a streaming environment that’s becoming increasingly fragmented and unpredictable.
    Shannon Carroll, Quartz, 6 June 2025
Adjective
  • Both have been neglected for years: Bridges are crumbling, school buildings disintegrating, and trains — once a symbol of German efficiency — are now so unreliable that some lines are banned from neighboring Switzerland’s railways.
    Tom Chivers, semafor.com, 4 June 2025
  • He’s also become notoriously unreliable as a live act, particularly in the Twin Cities.
    Ross Raihala, Twin Cities, 3 June 2025
Adjective
  • Hers is the kind of face that inspires directors to tight framing — gleaming, as if smoothed from marble, and yet somehow pliant, changeful.
    Jordan Kisner Jack Davison, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2022
  • Rigorous, blustery winter; winding sleety spring; hot, moist enervating summer; changeful autumn with its dog-days; these are absolutely unknown.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Jan. 2023
Adjective
  • Most notably, Trump has clashed with South Africa over false claims that white South African farmers are being regularly killed by Black locals, leading Washington to cut all US aid to the country and extend some white Afrikaners refugee status.
    Mathias Hammer, semafor.com, 12 June 2025
  • An excellent demo is what distinguishes the truth from false claims.
    Claire Trimble, Forbes.com, 12 June 2025
Adjective
  • Sitting places the glutes in a lengthened, inactive state that pushes the pelvis forward and puts the lower back at a painfully compressed, mechanical disadvantage, which in turn creates a posture that feels tight, stiff and unstable.
    Dana Santas, CNN Money, 30 May 2025
  • The mountain side of the glacier had been unstable since last week, when millions of pounds of rock debris fell onto the glacier surface, Davies said.
    Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 29 May 2025
Adjective
  • The Neshaminy Creek, placid in calm weather, turns treacherous after heavy rains, such as those that fell on Bucks County in the days before his accident.
    JD Mullane, USA Today, 29 May 2025
  • The savvy financial advisor Rick Kahler, president of Kahler Financial Group in Rapid City, S.D., tells us how to navigate this treacherous path.
    Larry Light, Forbes.com, 27 May 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Inconstant.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inconstant. Accessed 16 Jun. 2025.

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