lability

American  

[luh-bil-i-tee, ley-] / ləˈbɪl ɪ ti, leɪ- /

noun

1. the fact or quality of being likely to change.

   The lability of the neuromuscular system during physical therapy was measured in muscle force and reaction times.

2. Chemistry, Biochemistry. the ability or likelihood of a substance or compound to change or break down easily, rapidly, or continually.

   It was found that the degree of lability varies considerably with different amido-aldehydes.

3. Psychiatry. the unregulated or unstable state of emotions or mood, characterized by exaggerated affective expression.

   They were concerned about his emotional lability, from flaring anger one moment to maudlin sentimentality the next.

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Etymology

Origin of lability

First recorded in 1550–60 in a different sense; equivalent to Latin lābili(s) “sliding, slipping” ( labile ( def. ) ) + -tās -ty ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

Daniel Barnz, who cocreated the series with his teenage daughter, Zelda, had wondered how he would find an actor capable of Chester’s complexity — the audacity, the emotional lability, the chic.

From New York Times

But such lability can be a liability.

From New York Times

As a Geriatrician who helps elders often with mood lability, depression, agitation in Dementia, this piece makes psychiatry sound like just a grab bag of meds that if one doesn’t work, the doc just blindly pulls out another.

From New York Times

Another was an extreme lability of the emotions, so that men with scurvy cried often and unpredictably or succumbed to dangerous fits of temper.

From Slate

The discrepancy was caused by, among other things, the miscoding of a serious suicide attempt as “emotional lability,” a temporary condition that involves uncontrollable episodes of crying.

From Washington Post