fluency

English

Etymology

From Late Latin fluentia. Cognate with French fluence.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfluːənsi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

fluency (countable and uncountable, plural fluencies)

1. The quality of smoothness of flow.
   • 1996, Vera Morris, Bill Francoeur, A Little Princess: The Musical: Adapted from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “Sara Crewe”, Denver, Colo.: Pioneer Drama Service, →OCLC, act I, scene i, page 4:

     She has fluency, nobility, / Elegance and symmetry, / Stability, fluidity, / Like poetry in motion.

2. (linguistics) The quality of being fluent in a language; A person's command of a particular language.
3. The quality of consistently applying skill correctly in the manner of one well-practiced at it, requiring little deliberate thought to perform without mistakes
   • 2011 December 10, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 1 – 0 Everton”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     While Gunners boss Arsene Wenger had warned his players against letting the pre-match festivities distract them from the task at hand, they clearly struggled for fluency early on.

Derived terms

• dysfluency
• overfluency

Translations

quality of smoothness of flow

• Armenian: սահունություն (hy) (sahunutʿyun)
• Bulgarian: течливост f (tečlivost)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 流暢／流畅 (zh) (liúchàng)

• Finnish: virtaavuus, nestemäisyys
• German: Flüssigkeit (de) f, Fluss (de) m
• Hungarian: könnyedség (hu), gördülékenység (hu), folyékonyság (hu)
• Irish: éascaíocht f, líofacht f
• Japanese: 流暢 (ja) (りゅうちょう, ryūchō)
• Korean: 유창 (ko) (yuchang)
• Polish: biegłość (pl) f
• Portuguese: fluidez (pt) f
• Romanian: fluiditate (ro) f, fluență (ro) f
• Russian: бе́глость (ru) f (béglostʹ)
• Spanish: fluidez (es) f
• Turkish: akıcılık (tr)

linguistics: being fluent in a language

• Armenian: սահունություն (hy) (sahunutʿyun), արագախոսություն (hy) (aragaxosutʿyun)
• Catalan: fluïdesa (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 流利 (zh) (liúlì)

• Dutch: vlotheid (nl) f
• Esperanto: flueco
• Finnish: sujuvuus (fi)
• German: usually expressed using the adverb flüssig (de), Sprechflüssigkeit f, rare: Geläufigkeit f, usually for skill and elegance in a native language: Flüssigkeit (de) f
• Greek: ευφράδεια (el) f (effrádeia), ευχέρεια (el) f (efchéreia)

  Ancient Greek: εὐρημοσύνη f (eurēmosúnē)

• Hebrew: רהיטות (r'hitut)
• Hindi: रवानी (hi) f (ravānī)
• Hungarian: folyékony nyelvtudás
• Icelandic: flæði n
• Irish: líofacht f
• Italian: scioltezza (it) f
• Japanese: ぺらぺら (ja) (perapera), 流暢 (ja) (りゅうちょう, ryūchō)
• Khmer: ភាព​ស្ទាត់ជំនាញ (phiəp-stŏətcumniəñ)
• Korean: 유창 (ko) (yuchang), 유려 (ko) (yuryeo)
• Latin: lēvitās f
• Malay: kefasihan (ms)
• Polish: płynność (pl), biegłość (pl) f
• Portuguese: fluência (pt) f
• Romanian: fluență (ro) f
• Russian: свобо́дное владе́ние n (svobódnoje vladénije)
• Spanish: fluidez (es) f
• Thai: ความคล่องแคล่ว (th)
• Turkish: akıcılık (tr)
• Vietnamese: sự thành thạo
• Welsh: rhuglder (cy)

quality of consistently applying skill correctly

• Hungarian: jártasság (hu)
• Korean: 능숙도 (neungsukdo)
• Polish: biegłość (pl) f
• Spanish: desenvoltura f, desparpajo (es)

References

• “fluency”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.