imbalance

American  

[im-bal-uhns] / ɪmˈbæl əns /

noun

• imbalances
  plural

1. the state or condition of lacking balance, as in proportion or distribution.

2. faulty muscular or glandular coordination.

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imbalance British  

/ ɪmˈbæləns /

noun

1. a lack of balance, as in emphasis, proportion, etc

   the political imbalance of the programme

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• imbalances
  plural

Etymology

Origin of imbalance

First recorded in 1895–1900; im- ² + balance

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

imbalance imbalances

He would like to even out the two countries’ trade imbalance.

From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2026

At the end, you know, and I don’t know when it started, why it started, what happened, and it just seemed that there was an imbalance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026

"The domestic imbalance between strong supply and weak demand remains pronounced, some firms face operational difficulties and the foundation for steady economic improvement requires consolidation," it said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026

Mandates can encourage deployment, but they can also inflate electricity prices, due to supply-and-demand imbalance, and stimulate imports.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

Disease arose from an imbalance of these humors—too much of one, not enough of another.

From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy

That in itself created imbalances — refiners shifted to diesel “perhaps a little bit too early,” he said.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026

Their varied diets should also buffer them from imbalances in prey populations.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026

Here are three numbers from newly released August trade data that shed light on a phenomenon that is fueling friction with trading partners over China’s growing trade imbalances.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

"Those are difficult conversations to have," Josh Lipsky of the Atlantic Council told AFP, referring to the issue of imbalances.

From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026

It is my own feeling that the most successful line of research will be that taken by the men studying enzyme imbalances.

From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

Related Words

• inequality
• shortcoming