imbalance
Americannoun
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imbalances
plural
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the state or condition of lacking balance, as in proportion or distribution.
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faulty muscular or glandular coordination.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of imbalance
Explanation
An imbalance occurs when you have too much of some things and too little of others. If you put so much pepper in your soup that you can't taste the other spices, then you caused an imbalance in your flavoring. It’s easy to remember the meaning of imbalance when you break the word into parts. You might recognize the prefix im- as a way to say “not.” Combine that with the familiar word balance, and you come up with something that is decidedly out of whack, or not balanced. It means that something is out of proportion, such as a trade imbalance between nations, meaning the amount of goods they sell to one another is not equal.
Vocabulary lists containing imbalance
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: in-, im-, il-, ir-
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im-
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Thill said he anticipates that the company could announce even higher spending levels in 2027, given the severe supply-demand imbalance for compute.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 17, 2026
Demographic changes play a major part in the imbalance between supply and demand.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
EU and Chinese officials have been locked in talks since June to address Brussels' concerns about the current trade imbalance.
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
Chief Executive Sherman Miller said pricing is under pressure due to an industry-wide supply imbalance, even as underlying demand remains healthy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
So the secret danger was a ballooning stomach, the source of my mother’s imbalance.
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
Similar microbial imbalances, often called microbiome dysbiosis, occur elsewhere in the body and have been associated with a range of health problems, including certain types of cancer.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
That in itself created imbalances — refiners shifted to diesel “perhaps a little bit too early,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
In a press conference at the summit’s conclusion Tuesday night, Bessent said that meetings were productive, tackling trade imbalances, artificial intelligence and sovereign debt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Dombrovskis' comments come as Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors are opening a second day of meetings with issues like economic "imbalances" on the agenda.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
Such imbalances of equipment were decisive in innumerable other confrontations of Europeans with Native Americans and other peoples.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
