What's the difference between fickle and variable?

Fickle


Definition:

  • (a.) Not fixed or firm; liable to change; unstable; of a changeable mind; not firm in opinion or purpose; inconstant; capricious; as, Fortune's fickle wheel.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Light testing equipment is fickle by nature, making such units uncommon.
  • (2) Over the last five years in particular, the main parties' opinion poll ratings have been strikingly fickle.
  • (3) This was a risky proposition that depended on the good will of gentrifiers, who are famously fickle.
  • (4) Vinny's fame was quick, fickle and fizzled out a generation ago, hence leaving him quite literally sleeping in a skip, pickled by booze.
  • (5) It is also unthinking because it takes little account of the pending impact of the falling terms of trade and the sluggish domestic economy, which is being held back by chronic weakness in consumer sentiment and fickle business conditions.
  • (6) They were there to record everything from his despair at the fickleness of his recruits, to the distress of his wife Jools at the way the media had invaded their privacy, with scurrilous rumours of infidelity.
  • (7) Bowie wasn't a traditional pop star, happy to be known for one sound or idea then to be discarded by a fickle public.
  • (8) Washington has long been a fan of the petro-dollar and Obama is proving another fickle enthusiast, flirting with the industry one moment, even as he snaps at it the next – like the coquettish mistress of an oil tycoon.
  • (9) Could he build a winner to win over sometimes fickle Miami fans?
  • (10) Raquel Paiva, professor of communications at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said Brazil was a fickle nation that would probably soon forget this humiliation.
  • (11) The digital audience is more fickle: we have multiple subscriptions to magazines and newspapers; we leave a spray of comments on different websites.
  • (12) It is a strange and fickle beast, a flexible friend, dubious and duplicitous, as I was about to find out.
  • (13) How fickle the rest of the country is to forget its history at the expense of cheaper foreign imports.
  • (14) These moves are significant because the above list includes some strongly backed National candidates – especially Goold, who led the Headlong company, and Featherstone – but no recent appointee to another theatre could now express interest in Hytner's job without disqualifying themselves because of the appearance of fickleness.
  • (15) Bernard had become well aware of the fickle ways of Fleet Street and had become canny.
  • (16) At nearly 50, Ross will need to remain in the public eye lest the fickle world of TV starts to forget about him, but there are other ways of staying noticed in the digital era.
  • (17) The Scottish National party has repeatedly claimed that English and Welsh politicians would force Scotland to accept cuts or the loss of the Barnett formula if there was a no vote, accusing Westminster parties of being fickle.
  • (18) While the site is still sizeable it has lost users, business and momentum – extremely dangerous territory for anyone in the fickle internet business.
  • (19) Given the fickle and hypercritical nature of the group, in conceiving Spamalot Idle had to manage his expectations.
  • (20) She experienced something that transcended her pretty fickle and changeable musical allegiances.

Variable


Definition:

  • (a.) Having the capacity of varying or changing; capable of alternation in any manner; changeable; as, variable winds or seasons; a variable quantity.
  • (a.) Liable to vary; too susceptible of change; mutable; fickle; unsteady; inconstant; as, the affections of men are variable; passions are variable.
  • (n.) That which is variable; that which varies, or is subject to change.
  • (n.) A quantity which may increase or decrease; a quantity which admits of an infinite number of values in the same expression; a variable quantity; as, in the equation x2 - y2 = R2, x and y are variables.
  • (n.) A shifting wind, or one that varies in force.
  • (n.) Those parts of the sea where a steady wind is not expected, especially the parts between the trade-wind belts.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Although the mean values for all hemodynamic variables between the two placebo periods were minimally changed, the differences in individual patients were striking.
  • (2) Single-case experimental designs are presented and discussed from several points of view: Historical antecedents, assessment of the dependent variable, internal and external validity and pre-experimental vs experimental single-case designs.
  • (3) We have examined overlapping octapeptides from the kappa IIIb light chain variable region and show that some framework peptides have the ability to bind aggregated IgG.
  • (4) The family comprises at least three variable (V) gene segments, three constant (C) gene segments, and three junction (J) gene segments.
  • (5) Altogether 47 variables were investigated, and of these 34 gave results which were statistically significant.
  • (6) Variables included an ego-delay measure obtained from temporal estimations, perceptions of temporal dominance and relatedness obtained from Cottle's Circles Test, Ss' ages, and a measure of long-term posthospital adjustment.
  • (7) However, it is easier for them to cope with anxiety because premedication pacifies the patients, whereas each of the dependent variables, such as apprehension, is influenced differently.
  • (8) The half-life was very variable between subjects [2-8 hours], but less variable within subjects and it was unaffected by the formulation.
  • (9) Since 1979, patients started on long-term lithium treatment at the Psychiatric Hospital in Risskov have been followed systematically with recording of clinical and laboratory variables before the start of treatment, after 6 and 12 months of treatment, and thereafter at yearly intervals.
  • (10) Aside from these characteristic findings of HCC, it was important to reveal the following features for the diagnosis of well differentiated type of small HCC: variable thickening or distortion of trabecular structure in association with nuclear crowding, acinar formation, selective cytoplasmic accumulation of Mallory bodies, nuclear abnormalities consisting of thickening of nucleolus, hepatic cords in close contact with bile ducts or blood vessels, and hepatocytes growing in a fibrous environment.
  • (11) Examined specific relationships, as they occur in nature, between particular dietary variables or groups of variables and specific MMPI subscales.
  • (12) Excretion of inactive kallikrein again correlated with urine flow rate but the regression relationship between the two variables was different for water-load-induced and frusemide-induced diuresis.
  • (13) Our prospective study has defined a number of important variables in patients with clinical evidence of mast cell proliferation that can predict both the presence of SMCD and the likelihood of fatal disease.
  • (14) The dilemmas faced by the genetic counsellor are discussed in this variable autosomal dominant condition.
  • (15) Regression analysis on the 21 clinical or laboratory parameters studied showed that the only variable independently associated with CSF-FN was the total protein concentration in the CSF; this, however, explained only 14% of the observed variation in the CSF-FN concentration and did not show any correlation with CNS involvement.
  • (16) A number of variables which could influence the test has been evaluated and standardized in a way suitable for the routinary use of the technique described.
  • (17) There is a considerably larger variability of the mercury levels in urine than in blood.
  • (18) Blood gas variables produced from a computed in vivo oxygen dissociation curve, PaeO2, P95 and C(a-x)O2, were introduced in the University Hospital of Wales in 1986.
  • (19) Variability (CV = 0.7%) in body volume of a 45-year-old reference man measured by SH method was very similar to variation (CV = 0.6%) in mass volume of the 60-1 prototype.
  • (20) Both demographically and clinically assessed behavioral variables were related to a number of outcome measures, including days in the community, clinical ratings, and family assessment.