fluency

From Late Latin fluentia. Cognate with French fluence.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfluːənsi/

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fluency (countable and uncountable, plural fluencies)

1. The quality of smoothness of flow.
   • 1996, Vera Morris, Bill Francoeur, A Little Princess: The Musical: Adapted from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “Sara Crewe”, Denver, Colo.: Pioneer Drama Service, →OCLC, act I, scene i, page 4:

     She has fluency, nobility, / Elegance and symmetry, / Stability, fluidity, / Like poetry in motion.

2. (linguistics) The quality of being fluent in a language; A person's command of a particular language.
3. The quality of consistently applying skill correctly in the manner of one well-practiced at it, requiring little deliberate thought to perform without mistakes
   • 2011 December 10, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 1 – 0 Everton”, in BBC Sport‎:

     While Gunners boss Arsene Wenger had warned his players against letting the pre-match festivities distract them from the task at hand, they clearly struggled for fluency early on.

• dysfluency
• overfluency

• “fluency”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.