stability
Americannoun
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the state or quality of being stable.
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firmness in position.
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continuance without change; permanence.
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Chemistry. resistance or the degree of resistance to chemical change or disintegration.
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resistance to change, especially sudden change or deterioration.
The stability of the economy encourages investment.
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steadfastness; constancy, as of character or purpose.
The job calls for a great deal of emotional stability.
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Aeronautics. the ability of an aircraft to return to its original flying position when abruptly displaced.
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Roman Catholic Church. a vow taken by a Benedictine monk, binding him to residence for life in the same monastery in which he made the vow.
noun
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the quality of being stable
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the ability of an aircraft to resume its original flight path after inadvertent displacement
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meteorol
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the condition of an air or water mass characterized by no upward movement
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the degree of susceptibility of an air mass to disturbance by convection currents
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ecology the ability of an ecosystem to resist change
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electrical engineering the ability of an electrical circuit to cope with changes in the operational conditions
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a vow taken by every Benedictine monk attaching him perpetually to the monastery where he is professed
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of stability
First recorded in 1400–50; from Latin stabilitās, from stabili(s) stable 2 + -tās -ty 2; replacing late Middle English stablete, from Old French, from Latin, as above
Explanation
Stability is the quality of being unchanging. You know you should be congratulated on your commitment to stability when you’ve lived in the same place your whole life. Stability is often used to describe buildings or structures that won't collapse or fall down. Good tires will help you maintain stability on snowy or icy roads. You can use the word more figuratively for a safe environment or a healthy mental state. Financial and political stability are to be desired. Hopefully you will provide your children stability and love. When you have violent outbursts, people began to doubt your mental stability.
Vocabulary lists containing stability
The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 6
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Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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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:
These cash reserves won’t make you rich, but they are the foundation for financial stability, as they help households avoid taking on high-interest credit-card debt when surprise expenses pop up.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
Prolonged heat exposure alters development and threatens long-term population stability.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
LONDON—Britain’s new prime minister arrived in Downing Street last week promising stability for a weary nation bewildered after churning through six leaders in seven years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Although studies have found that they can show a degree of stability over time, Vrticka says change is possible.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
“And what about the stability of the brain?”
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
"Many stability-based concepts, characteristics and phenomena within the physical sciences find analogous expression in the influences on the relative stabilities of socio-political systems."
From Science Daily ● Jan. 11, 2024
In 2021, Li and his team offered one way to deal with dendrites by designing a multilayer battery that sandwiched different materials of varying stabilities between the anode and cathode.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 8, 2024
Explain your reasoning in terms of the relative stabilities of ATP and gasoline compared to air in which no catalysts are present.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
The intersheet steric-zipper motifs between the polymorphs differ, yielding distinct amyloid stabilities, and correspondingly, the surfaces between the polymorphs require dissimilar interaction activities55.
From Nature ● Nov. 8, 2016
Believing that such things may be as this revelation of a wreck, they naturally are less exacting of the stabilities of the proving process.
From The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) by Kenyon, Frederic G. (Frederic George), Sir
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.
