Adjacent Words

Instability definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INSTABIL'ITY, n. [L. instabilitas, instabilis; in and stabilis, from sto, to stand.
1. Want of stability; want of firmness in purpose; inconstancy; fickleness; mutability of opinion or conduct. Instability is the characteristic of weak minds.
2. Changeableness; mutability; as the instability of laws, plans or measures.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an unstable order [ant: stability]
2: unreliability attributable to being unstable
3: a lack of balance or state of disequilibrium; "a hormonal imbalance" [syn: imbalance, instability, unbalance] [ant: balance]
4: the quality or attribute of being unstable and irresolute [syn: instability, unstableness] [ant: stability, stableness]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 15th century the quality or state of being unstable; especially lack of emotional or mental stability

NOAA Weather Glossary

A state of the atmosphere in which convection takes placespontaneously, leading to cloud formation and precipitation.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 a lack of stability. 2 Psychol. unpredictability in behaviour etc. 3 an instance of instability. Etymology: ME f. F instabilité f. L instabilitas -tatis f. instabilis (as IN-(1), STABLE(1))

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Instability In`sta*bil"i*ty, n.; pl. Instabilities. [L. instabilitas: cf. F. instabilit['e].] 1. The quality or condition of being unstable; want of stability, firmness, or steadiness; liability to give way or to fail; insecurity; precariousness; as, the instability of a building. 2. Lack of determination of fixedness; inconstancy; fickleness; mutability; changeableness; as, instability of character, temper, custom, etc. --Addison. Syn: Inconstancy; fickleness; changeableness; wavering; unsteadiness; unstableness.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(instabilities) Instability is the quality of being unstable. ...unpopular policies, which resulted in social discontent and political instability. ? stability N-UNCOUNT: also N in pl

Moby Thesaurus

ambitendency, ambivalence, caducity, capriciousness, chanciness, change of mind, changeability, changeableness, choppiness, corruptibility, criticalness, danger, dappleness, death, decrepitude, delicacy, desultoriness, deviability, deviation, difference, differentiation, disorder, divarication, divergence, diversification, double-mindedness, doubtfulness, dubiety, dubiousness, eccentricity, ephemerality, ephemeralness, erraticism, evanescence, fence-sitting, fence-straddling, fickleness, finitude, fleetingness, flightiness, freakishness, fugacity, hazard, hazardousness, impermanence, impermanency, impulsiveness, incapacity, inconsistency, inconstancy, indecision, indecisiveness, inequality, infirmity, infirmity of purpose, insecurity, insipidity, insolidity, insubstantiality, invalidism, irregularity, irresolution, jerkiness, mercuriality, momentariness, moodiness, mortality, motleyness, mugwumpery, mugwumpism, mutability, nonconformism, nonconformity, nonstandardization, nonuniformity, peril, perilousness, perishability, pluralism, precariousness, raggedness, restlessness, ricketiness, risk, riskiness, second thoughts, senility, shakiness, shiftiness, shiftingness, slipperiness, speculativeness, sword of Damocles, tergiversation, ticklish business, ticklishness, totteriness, touchiness, transience, transiency, transientness, transitoriness, treacherousness, treachery, unauthenticity, unauthoritativeness, uncertainty, unconformism, unconformity, undecidedness, undependability, undeterminedness, unevenness, unfaithworthiness, unfirmness, unfixedness, unhealthiness, unorthodoxy, unpredictability, unreliability, unsafeness, unsettledness, unsettlement, unsolidity, unsoundness, unstableness, unsteadfastness, unsteadiness, unsturdiness, unsubstantiality, unsureness, untrustworthiness, vapidity, variability, variation, variegation, variety, variousness, versatility, volatility, wantonness, wateriness, wavering, waywardness, whimsicality, wishy-washiness