instability

[in-stuh-bil-i-tee]

noun

1. the quality or state of being unstable; lack of stability or firmness.

2. the tendency to behave in an unpredictable, changeable, or erratic manner.

   emotional instability.

instability

/ ˌɪnstəˈbɪlɪtɪ /

noun

1. lack of stability or steadiness

2. tendency to variable or unpredictable behaviour

3. physics a fast growing disturbance or wave in a plasma

Word History and Origins

Origin of instability¹

1375–1425; late Middle English instabilite < Latin instabilitās. See in- ³, stability

Example Sentences

One is driven by weak economic growth, the other stems from political instability, which discourages investment and growth and pushes people deeper into poverty, fuelling social unrest.

Read more on BBC

And it’s becoming more burdensome as the instability of America’s student-loan apparatus comes into sharp focus.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Yields have tightened in recent days as the threat of an immediate election abates but political instability looks set to remain.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

TOKYO—A major political ally of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has exited the governing coalition, ending a 26-year-long relationship in a move that could fuel political instability.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The Argentine author, whose writing habitually draws on the uncanny, here delivers a blend of superstition, dread and a leitmotif of mental instability in a register of acute psychological realism.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• anxiety 
• fluctuation 
• insecurity 
• uncertainty 
• volatility 
• vulnerability 
• weakness