fluent

[floo-uh nt] /ˈflu ənt/

adjective

spoken or written with ease:

fluent French.

able to speak or write smoothly, easily, or readily:

a fluent speaker; fluent in six languages.

easy; graceful:

fluent motion; fluent curves.

flowing, as a stream.

capable of flowing; fluid, as liquids or gases.

easily changed or adapted; pliant.

Origin

1580-90; < Latin fluent- (stem of fluēns) flowing, present participle of fluere; see -ent

Related forms

fluency, fluentness, noun

fluently, adverb

nonfluency, noun

nonfluent, adjective

nonfluently, adverb

nonfluentness, noun

overfluency, noun

overfluent, adjective

overfluently, adverb

overfluentness, noun

transfluent, adjective

unfluent, adjective

unfluently, adverb

Synonyms

1, 2. Fluent, glib, voluble may refer to a flow of words. Fluent suggests the easy and ready flow of an accomplished speaker and is usually a term of commendation: a fluent and interesting speech. Glib implies an excessive fluency divorced from sincerity or profundity; it often suggests talking smoothly and hurriedly to cover up or deceive, not giving the hearer a chance to stop and think; it may also imply a plausible, prepared, and well-rehearsed lie: He had a glib answer for everything. Voluble implies the overcopious and often rapid flow of words characteristic of a person who loves to talk: She overwhelmed him with her voluble answer. See also eloquent.

Examples from the web for fluent

Three fluent speakers, two of them native, worked on this.
By the way, you don't need to learn a language in elementary school to be a fluent speaker.
And fluent in the other's language, they are good friends to boot.
Walruses are clumsy on land but swim with fluent grace.
Comparing a string of sequels is part of being intellectually fluent in the dynamics of play.
Becoming fluent in a language is certainly an ongoing process, and the training was a solid foundation to build upon.
For their own benefit, all who choose to live here need to be fluent.
From first to last, this amusing pretension has garnished his public oratory, and the responses of fluent sycophants.
Beloved friend, noted journalist and historian and fluent in four languages.
Her dancers are talented and her choreography is fluent.

British Dictionary definitions for fluent

fluent

/ˈfluːənt/

adjective

able to speak or write a specified foreign language with facility

spoken or written with facility: his French is fluent

easy and graceful in motion or shape

flowing or able to flow freely

Derived Forms

fluently, adverb

Word Origin

C16: from Latin: flowing, from fluere to flow

Word Origin and History for fluent

adj.

1580s, "flowing freely" (of water, also of speech), from Latin fluentem (nominative fluens) "lax, relaxed," figuratively "flowing, fluent," present participle of fluere "to flow, stream, run, melt," from PIE *bhleugw-, extended form of *bhleu- "to swell, well up, overflow" (cf. Latin flumen "river;" Greek phluein "to boil over, bubble up," phlein "to abound"), an extension of root *bhel- (2) "to blow, inflate, swell;" see bole. Used interchangeably with fluid in Elizabethan times. Related: Fluently.