How to Use fluttering in a Sentence

fluttering

noun
  • The sound of rushing cars fades into the gentle fluttering of pages in the wind.
    — Jason Lecras, Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2026
  • The sound of the shuffling symbol cards is soothing, like the fluttering of birds’ wings.
    — Washington Post, 17 Apr. 2022
  • Scratching, chirping and fluttering in the walls of bats living there.
    — Alora Bopray, USA Today, 24 June 2026
  • Then the tempo slowed once more and the fluttering began to sound like chattering.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 8 Nov. 2021
  • She must be exhausted after so much fluttering.
    — María Ospina, The Dial, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Each actor does their best work wordlessly, the fluttering of a throat or a downward gaze speaking volumes.
    — Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 6 Dec. 2024
  • The final fluttering of the current pattern was forecast to bring light rain late Wednesday night.
    — Rick Hurd, The Mercury News, 19 Mar. 2025
  • These butterflies require a 12-foot swath of fresh corduroy for their fluttering.
    — Sundog, Outside Online, 3 Apr. 2021
  • His voice was accompanied by the sound of dripping water and the fluttering of bats, which swirled around the ceiling and clicked in the dark.
    — Robert M. Poole, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Oct. 2011
  • Symptoms of the condition include shortness of breath, chest pain and a fluttering or pounding heart.
    — Anne Thompson, NBC news, 4 Dec. 2025
  • These patterns result from curtain-like magnetic fields that ripple and shift like fabric fluttering in the wind.
    — Samantha Mathewson, Space.com, 6 June 2025
  • The fluttering of camera shutters becomes a soundtrack.
    — Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 9 Mar. 2026
  • Another mourner laid her cheek on a coffin, stroking the polished wood with her hand amid a hush so profound that the faint fluttering of the flags could be heard.
    — Fredrick Kunkle, Washington Post, 9 June 2022
  • The victim was allegedly alive the entire time, and his last breaths would cause a final fluttering of the lungs, akin to the fluttering of a bird's wings.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 10 Jan. 2022
  • This is especially true of the female, because her tawny coloration makes the fluttering of her feathers more visible.
    — National Geographic, 4 Aug. 2020
  • Ethereal light shining as the curtains open, a fluttering of bodies weaving in every which way—all of them wearing the same clothes, all of them knowing where to go.
    — Arick Wierson, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Apr. 2025
  • There’s danger, there’s intimacy, there’s magic, there’s heart fluttering.
    — Eric Vilas-Boas, Vulture, 10 Mar. 2024
  • Doctors opposed to the bills dispute that description, saying the fluttering that is detected cannot exist outside the womb.
    — Compiled Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 2 Sep. 2021
  • However, the victim inevitably would have died from shock and blood loss very early on in the process, so the final fluttering of the lungs is likely poetic license.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 10 Jan. 2022
  • But then my eyes adjust, and swarming constellations of bats appear before me—each fluttering at its own irregular pace, carving out new paths across the night sky.
    — Lale Arikoglu, Condé Nast Traveler, 19 July 2023
  • In strong winds, occupants have reported water sloshing in toilet bowls, chandeliers swaying, and panes of glass fluttering.
    — Bianca Bosker, The Atlantic, 17 Dec. 2022
  • The researchers found that females more frequently performed the fluttering, after which the male would usually enter the box first—regardless of which bird was first to arrive at the site.
    — Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 26 Mar. 2024
  • Her subjects range from the humming of trees conversing through underground fungi to the iridescent call (invisible to humans) that flowers make to fluttering bees.
    — Devorah Lauter, ARTnews.com, 16 June 2026
  • Doctors have long tried to understand whether caffeine — which can increase heart rate and blood pressure — appears to trigger episodes that feel like a fluttering or thumping in the chest and cause dizziness or breathlessness.
    — Kaitlin Sullivan, NBC news, 9 Nov. 2025
  • Hundreds of locals piled into boats and sped out of the harbor to the loud crack of a starting pistol, bunting fluttering in the wind, as offerings were thrown onto the shores of a tiny, uninhabited island.
    — Liam Hess, Vogue, 20 Jan. 2025
  • When Francis reveals the depth of his devotion to Dale’s music, the saxophonist shakes the younger man’s hand with a fluttering of fingers that has the power of an embrace.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 15 Feb. 2024
  • Rather than behaving like loose, fluttering surfaces, peregrine feathers help maintain a smooth aerodynamic profile, even when under the immense airflow pressure of the stoop and pull-out.
    — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 24 May 2026
  • The way Greenwood’s arpeggios bend upward at the end of every line in the first half evokes the intoxication of a lover’s touch; Skinner’s drumming feels more like the fluttering of cilia.
    — Pitchfork, 4 Dec. 2023
  • But from the fluttering of its aluminum hood on the highway to its lack of a heated steering wheel and rear climate-control vents, the WRX quickly reminds you of its economy-car roots.
    — Mike Sutton, Car and Driver, 1 Nov. 2022
  • The eye, though, is much more parsimonious, focusing its attention only on a small part of the visual scene at any one time—namely, the part of the scene that changes, like the fluttering of a leaf or a golf ball splashing into water.
    — Christoph Posch, IEEE Spectrum, 26 Nov. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fluttering.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: