instability
Americannoun
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instabilities
plural
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the quality or state of being unstable; lack of stability or firmness.
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the tendency to behave in an unpredictable, changeable, or erratic manner.
emotional instability.
noun
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lack of stability or steadiness
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tendency to variable or unpredictable behaviour
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physics a fast growing disturbance or wave in a plasma
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of instability
1375–1425; late Middle English instabilite < Latin instabilitās. See in- 3, stability
Explanation
Instability is the quality of not being stable, balanced, or predictable. If you've ever walked out onto a diving board, you've probably noticed its instability — meaning the board bends and bounces as you move. Instability comes from the Middle French word instabilite, meaning "unsteadiness." Instability can refer to objects that are not stable, but it can also describe unpredictable situations or relationships. For example, you might hear people talk about economic instability. Or if your behavior at school grows erratic and unpredictable, you might be asked to speak to a therapist about your psychological instability.
Vocabulary lists containing instability
Southeast Asia - Middle School
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Southeast Asia - High School
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Second Democratic Debate 20 words
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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:
Ongoing regional instability near the location of the outbreak, in the east of DR Congo, has added to challenges in controlling the spread of the disease.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
These kinds of asset recovery can worsen housing instability, limit opportunities for intergenerational wealth and contribute to existing racial and economic disparities, the organization adds.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
A fear of political instability in the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
The program has allowed hundreds of thousands of Haitians to live and work legally in the United States due to violence and political instability back home.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
The same evolutionary forces prevailed to replicate a particular model’s positive traits and breed out excess drag and instability.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
Those conditions could provide exactly what is needed for Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities to form.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026
Its present size and depth, approximately 350 km wide, line up well with predictions for these slow-moving mantle instabilities.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 25, 2025
However, the high-confinement mode has historically come hand-in-hand with instabilities at the plasma's edge, a challenge that has required fusion researchers to find creative workarounds.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 5, 2024
Parisi, together with a team of scientists, explored the limits of pedestals and investigated how much pressure could be applied to plasma inside a fusion reactor before instabilities appeared.
From Science Daily ● May 28, 2024
Our turning away would unleash new instabilities, new dangers around the globe, which, in turn, would threaten our own security.
From State of the Union Address by Gerald R. Ford
Definitions 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.
