as in movements
the act or an instance of changing position
I thought I detected a slight stirring of the leaves, and yet there wasn't a breath of wind
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Recent Examples of stirrings
There are already stirrings suggesting that Democrats will try again.
—
Niall Stanage, The Hill, 9 Jan. 2026
Only a small percentage of Costco’s workforce is unionized, but the company has seen new stirrings of union activity in recent years.
—Molly Fischer, New Yorker, 20 Oct. 2025
Other indicators do suggest the stirrings of a more pronounced AI effect on jobs.
—Rob Wile, NBC news, 8 Aug. 2025
Niall Stanage, The Hill, 9 Jan. 2026
Only a small percentage of Costco’s workforce is unionized, but the company has seen new stirrings of union activity in recent years.
—Molly Fischer, New Yorker, 20 Oct. 2025
Other indicators do suggest the stirrings of a more pronounced AI effect on jobs.
—Rob Wile, NBC news, 8 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stirrings
Noun
-
Every festival has had to think about questions being pushed over the last few years, with horrible wars going on in in Ukraine and in Gaza and elsewhere, and a lot of political movements building up around them, and with a lot of political pressure on cultural events, including film festivals.—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
9 Mar. 2026
-
None could tame its political furies; its covert operations, which killed more than a thousand Americans in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan; or its expansion, through the creation of like-minded extremist movements, across the Middle East.—
Robin Wright,
New Yorker,
8 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Capricorn December 22 – January 19 Perspective shifts may reshape your upcoming plans.—
Tarot.com,
Baltimore Sun,
3 Mar. 2026
-
December 22 – January 19 Perspective shifts may reshape your upcoming plans.—
Tarot.com,
The Orlando Sentinel,
3 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Holland made only a few cosmetic moves ahead of Friday’s trade deadline, shipping out forwards Corey Perry and Warren Foegele for draft picks and adding Scott Laughton and Mathieu Joseph, depth pieces, neither of whom are signed beyond this season.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
8 Mar. 2026
-
The Bears had a lot of work to do to become salary-cap compliant, and both of those moves helped.—
Zachary Pereles,
CBS News,
7 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Training the controllers The controllers of the humanoid robot were trained on dynamic parkour motions extracted from the dataset, using reinforcement learning.—
Atharva Gosavi,
Interesting Engineering,
6 Mar. 2026
-
Once the legs are free, slow and controlled motions can help a person gradually reach firmer ground.—
Outside,
Outside,
5 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Stirrings.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stirrings. Accessed 11 Mar. 2026.
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