flux

English

Etymology

From Old French flux, from Latin fluxus (“flow”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flʌks/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌks

Noun

flux (countable and uncountable, plural fluxes)

1. The act of flowing; a continuous moving on or passing by, as of a flowing stream.
   • 1731, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments, and the Choice of Them, According to the Different Constitutions of Human Bodies. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson […], →OCLC:

     By […] the perpetual Flux of the Liquids, a great part of the Liquids is thrown out of the Body.

   • 1991, Mann, H., Fyfe, W., Tazaki, K., & Kerrich, R., Biological Accumulation of Different Chemical Elements by Microorganisms from Yellowstone National Park, USA. Mechanisms And Phylogeny Of Mineralization In Biological Systems, 357-362.

     Investigation of the silica budget for the Upper and Lower Geyser Basins of Yellowstone National Park by Truesdell et al. suggest that the present fluxes of hotspring water and thermal energy may have been continuous for at least the past 10,000 yr.

2. A state of ongoing change.

   Antonym: stasis

   The schedule is in flux at the moment.

   Languages, like our bodies, are in a continual flux.

   • 1856, Richard Chenevix Trench, On the Death of an Infant:

     Her image has escaped the flux of things, / And that same infant beauty that she wore / Is fixed upon her now forevermore.

   • 2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, pages 55–56:

     Darwin recognized that just as the features of the inorganic world—deltas, river valleys, mountain chains—were brought into being by gradual change, the organic world similarly was subject to constant flux.

   • 2022 September 19, Alan Cowell, “From Coronation to Funeral: Bookends to the Life of a Queen, and a Generation”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     […] her eldest son, now King Charles III, has assumed the monarch’s role […] as the anchor of a nation’s identity in troubled times of change and flux.

3. A chemical agent for cleaning metal prior to soldering or welding.

   It is important to use flux when soldering or oxides on the metal will prevent a good bond.

4. (physics) The rate of transfer of energy (or another physical quantity), especially an electric or magnetic field, through a given surface.

   That high a neutron flux would be lethal in seconds.

5. (archaic) A disease which causes diarrhea, especially dysentery.
6. (archaic) Diarrhea or other fluid discharge from the body.
7. The state of being liquid through heat; fusion.

Derived terms

• actinic flux
• biflux
• black flux
• bloody flux
• calfluxin
• chemical flux
• chemiflux
• coeliac-flux
• eigenflux
• electric flux
• fluxation
• fluxbrane
• flux capacitor
• flux density
• fluxgate
• fluximetry
• fluxity
• fluxive
• fluxless
• fluxlike
• fluxoid
• fluxome
• fluxon
• fluxonium
• fluxotaxis
• fluxtube
• flux tube
• flux unit
• fluxy
• genderflux
• hyperflux
• isoflux
• luminous flux
• magnetic flux
• magnetic flux density
• neutron flux
• outflux
• overflux
• slime flux
• state of flux
• transflux
• triflux
• upflux
• white flux

 

Translations

state of ongoing change

• Bulgarian: променливост (bg) f (promenlivost), течение (bg) n (tečenie)
• Danish: forandring (da) c
• Dutch: voortdurende wijziging f
• Finnish: muutos (fi), muutostila
• German: Fluss (de) m
• Greek: ρευστότητα (el) f (refstótita)
• Italian: flusso (it) m
• Japanese: 多様性 (ja) (たようせい, tayōsei)
• Portuguese: fluxo (pt) m
• Russian: изме́нчивость (ru) f (izménčivostʹ), постоянное движе́ние n (postojannoje dvižénije), разнообра́зие (ru) n (raznoobrázije), тече́ние (ru) n (tečénije)
• Serbo-Croatian: fluks (sh) m
• Spanish: fluxión (es) f
• Ukrainian: різноманітність (riznomanitnistʹ)

chemical agent for cleaning metal prior to soldering or welding

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: флюс m (fljus)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: flusmiddel n
• Dutch: flux (nl) m, vloeimiddel n
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: juoksute (fi), juotosapuaine, fluksi (colloquial)
• French: décapant (fr) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Flussmittel n
• Greek: τήξη (el) f (tíxi)
• Hungarian: salakképző anyagok pl
• Italian: flussante m
• Japanese: 融剤 (ゆうざい, yūzai)
• Khmer: ក្រមួន (km) (krɑmuən)
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: Fluks m
• Polish: topnik m
• Portuguese: fundente m
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: флюс (ru) m (fljus)
• Serbo-Croatian: fluks (sh) m
• Slovak: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: fundente m
• Swedish: flussmedel (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: fflycs m

rate of transfer of energy (electric flux, magnetic flux)

• Bulgarian: поток (bg) m (potok)
• Czech: tok (cs)
• Danish: flux c
• Finnish: vuo (fi)
• French: flux (fr) m
• German: Fluss (de) m
• Greek: ροή (el) f (roḯ)
• Japanese: 流量 (ja) (りゅうりょう, ryūryou)
• Norwegian: Fluks m
• Polish: strumień (pl) m
• Portuguese: fluxo (pt) m
• Russian: пото́к (ru) m (potók)
• Serbo-Croatian: fluks (sh) m
• Spanish: flujo (es) m
• Turkish: akı (tr)

Verb

flux (third-person singular simple present fluxes, present participle fluxing, simple past and past participle fluxed)

1. (transitive) To use flux on.

   You have to flux the joint before soldering.

2. (transitive) To melt.
3. (intransitive) To flow as a liquid.

Related terms

• fluxion

Adjective

flux (not comparable)

1. (uncommon) Flowing; unstable; inconstant; variable.
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, "On Contentment", Sermon XL, in The Theological Works, Volume 2, Clarendon Press, 1818, page 375:

     The flux nature of all things here.

Related terms

• fluxional

Related terms

• fluctuant

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin flūxus. Doublet of fluix.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈfluks]

Noun

flux m (plural fluxos)

1. flow

Related terms

• fluir

Further reading

• “flux” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “flux”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “flux” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fluxus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fly/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

Noun

flux m (plural flux)

1. flow
2. flood, flood tide

   Antonym: reflux

3. (figurative) flood (an abundance of something)

Derived terms

• flux de travaux
• flux de trésorerie
• flux RSS

 

Further reading

• “flux”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Old French

Noun

flux oblique singular, m (oblique plural flux, nominative singular flux, nominative plural flux)

1. diarrhea (rapid passage of fecal matter through the bowels)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French flux.

Noun

flux n (plural fluxuri)

1. flow (the flow of the tide)

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	flux	fluxul		fluxuri	fluxurile
genitive-dative	flux	fluxului		fluxuri	fluxurilor
vocative	fluxule			fluxurilor

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French flux. Doublet of flujo and flojo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfluɡs/ [ˈfluɣ̞s]
• Rhymes: -uɡs
• Syllabification: flux

Noun

flux m (plural fluxes)

1. (card playing) flush (hand consisting of all cards with the same suit)
2. (Venezuela, colloquial, Dominican Republic, dated) suit (set of clothes)

   Synonyms: terno, traje

Further reading

• “flux”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28