variability
Americannoun
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the quality of being subject to change, especially frequent, random, or short-term change: Ensuring effective cooperation in home care is difficult because of the variability of schedules and tasks of both patients and caregivers.
On a longer time scale, climate variability translates into shortages of food and water worldwide.
Ensuring effective cooperation in home care is difficult because of the variability of schedules and tasks of both patients and caregivers.
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the quality of including different kinds, or of being different from one case to the other; diversity.
Healthcare administrators noted the variability among nursing education programs and called for standardization.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of variability
Explanation
The weather in San Francisco is known for its variability. One minute it's summer and the next, winter. Variability means the tendency to shift or change — of being "variable." There are many words that contain vari-, and they almost all have to do with change or difference. Variability is the noun version of this idea. The variability of the weather means that you never know exactly what to wear. T-shirt or sweater: the choices vary along with the weather. Many things are known for their variability: the taste of teenagers, the talent of the singers on "American Idol," Frank Sinatra's moods. These are just some of the things that exhibit real variability.
Vocabulary lists containing variability
"The Origin of Species by Natural Selection" by Charles Darwin: Essential Words
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30 GRE Words Beginning with "T" "U" "V" and "W"
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Statistics and Probability - Middle School
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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.
She said researchers trying to do that can often miss the complexity, scale, and natural variability in the systems they are investigating.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
“While demand remains strong, we continue to see variability tied to customer timing, mix sensitivity, working capital intensity and customer concentration,” Asiya Merchant, technology equity analyst at Citigroup, wrote in a note on Wednesday.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
Among healthy participants, NEUSLeeP stimulation also increased heart rate variability, which is commonly used as an indicator of the body's ability to respond to stress.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026
Starting at 6:30 a.m., she will take a barrage of tests: She’ll spit in a tube, check her temperature and measure her heart-rate variability.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Traditional restaurants generally provide a product of higher average quality but of much greater variability, especially on the downward side.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
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.
