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.
Rising global temperatures, together with natural climate variability, have contributed to the growing loss of Arctic sea ice.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026
AI is already being used to make electricity grids more efficient in complex energy systems, helping operators manage the variability of solar and wind power.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
We selected these two prompts to demonstrate the variability of results.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
They still carry the risk of variability over the life of the loan, but lower introductory rates have made ARMs attractive for buyers struggling to afford fixed rates in today’s housing market.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
If the base sequences were always the same, all DNA molecules would be identical and there would not exist the variability that must distinguish one gene from another.
From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
