fluent

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Latin fluens (“flowing”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈfluːənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊənt

Adjective

fluent (comparative more fluent, superlative most fluent)

1. That flows; flowing, liquid.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.12:

     For time is a fleeting thing, and which appeareth as in a shadow, with the matter ever gliding, alwaies fluent, without ever being stable or permanent [...].

2. (linguistics) Able to speak a language accurately, rapidly, and confidently – in a flowing way.

Usage notes

In casual use, “fluency” refers to language proficiency broadly, while in narrow use it refers to speaking a language flowingly, rather than haltingly.

Translations

able to speak a language accurately and confidently

• Arabic: طلق (ar) (Taliq), فصيح (ar) (faṣiiḥ)

  Egyptian Arabic: لبلب (lebleb)

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 流利 (cmn) (liúlì), 滔滔 (cmn) (tāotāo), 暢達 (cmn), 畅达 (cmn) (chàngdá)

  Min Nan: trad. 輾轉, simpl. 辗转 (lián-tńg)

• Czech: plynulý (cs) m, plynný (cs) m
• Danish: flydende (da)
• Dutch: vloeiend (nl)
• Esperanto: flua (eo)
• Finnish: sujuva (fi)
• French: courant (fr) m, courante (fr) f, éloquent (fr) m
• German: fließend (de)
• Greek: ρευστός (el) (refstós), με ευχέρεια (el) (me efxéria)
• Hebrew: משוטף (he) (mishutaf)

• Hungarian: folyékony (hu)
• Icelandic: reiprennandi (is), altalandi (is)
• Indonesian: fasih, lancar
• Italian: fluente (it) m and f
• Japanese: ぺらぺら (ja) (perapera), 流暢な (ja) (りゅうちょうな, ryūchō-na), すらすら (ja) (surasura)
• Maori: matatau (mi)
• Norwegian: flytende (no)
• Polish: płynny (pl), biegły (pl)
• Portuguese: fluente (pt) m and f
• Russian: беглый (ru) (béglyj), свободный (ru) (svobódnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: siùbhlach (gd)
• Serbo-Croatian: tečan (sh)
• Slovene: tekoče
• Spanish: fluido (es) m
• Swedish: flytande (sv)
• Welsh: rhugl (cy)

Related terms

• fluency
• fluently

Anagrams

• unfelt

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Latin

Verb

fluent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of fluō