Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Lack of physical stability; unsteadiness.
- n. The quality or condition of being erratic or undependable: emotional instability; political instability.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state of being unstable; want of stability or firmness, physical or moral; liability to fall, fail, give way, or suffer change.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable The quality of being unstable.
- n. physics, countable A state that is not in equilibrium, or in which a small change has a large irreversible effect.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The quality or condition of being unstable; lack of stability, firmness, or steadiness; liability to give way or to fail; insecurity; precariousness.
- n. Lack of determination of fixedness; inconstancy; fickleness; mutability; changeableness.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an unstable order
- n. unreliability attributable to being unstable
- n. the quality or attribute of being unstable and irresolute
- n. a lack of balance or state of disequilibrium
Etymologies
- in- + stability (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Lubos is using the term instability the way I find it meaningful.”
“So there lies (excuse the pun) the problem for the West either to intervene in Libya and cause further mayhem for years to come (Iraq, Afghanistan) or let the problem pan out with short term instability and persecution..decisions decisions Obama and co...”
“The name of Mr. Wouk's antihero, Captain Queeg, has become useful shorthand for a leader whose instability is exceeded only by his incompetence.”
“An unemployment check might be a family's last line of defense against the poor health, disruptions in education, and long-term instability that are associated with severe poverty.”
The Huffington Post: Michelle Chen: Washington's Debt Panic and the Real Social Debt in America
“Ivan Duane Braden, a former National Guardsman discharged from an Iraq-bound unit after superiors noted signs of instability, is arrested after checking into a mental health facility and telling counselors about plans to blow up a synagogue and a National Guard armory in Tennessee.”
“The first argues, in essence, that, conservatives should back people seeking liberty and democratic reform wherever they emerge, and that any short-term instability is outweighed in the long run by the prospective emergence of new democratic governments that inevitably will share American ideals.”
The Wall Street Journal: Conservatives Spar Over Best Approach on Egypt
“Monetary instability is a threat to the global recovery.”
“Clinton said outside support for Suleiman's efforts was essential despite risks of short-term instability, as illustrated by reports of an alleged attack Saturday on an oil pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula.”
The Huffington Post: Clinton: 'Perfect Storm' Brewing In Middle East
“Oil companies invested in Kazakhstan believe that whatever leader comes next will deal with them on good terms, he said, and I agree, but concern is getting stronger on the threat of medium-term instability.”
The Wall Street Journal: Kazakh Vote Opens Parliament to Opposition
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘instability’.
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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AFET - diplomacy
broker a peace ac..., client state, deadlocked peace ..., embassy, freeze, goodwill ambassador, hinterland, interfere in dome..., intervene personally, maintain technica..., mediation, no business as usual and 670 more...
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Rococo
Words that describe the decadent Rococo art of the early 18th Century
Baroque, hedonistic, sensuality, pretty, elaborate, flirtation, chauvinistic, cupid, decorative, playful, vibrant, exuberant and 31 more...
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five syllables
ontogenesis, phylogenesis, concatenation, androgenesis, extra textual, inexorably, spagyrically, apophenia, iatrochemist, monocotyloid, morphological, parthenogenic and 941 more...
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European World Systems
europe, colonization, defense, barter, feudalism, gunpowder, technology, guns, domination, lords, monarchs, transition and 250 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
Tweets
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