volatility
Americannoun
Explanation
Volatility is the trait of being excitable and unpredictable. Your volatility might ultimately be the thing that makes you unsuitable as a preschool teacher. The noun volatility is the characteristic of changing often and unpredictably. Your sister's volatility might be shown in how quickly she switches from laughing to crying. If you talk about the volatility of the stock market, stock prices are most likely fluctuating wildly. In chemistry, volatility means the speed with which a substance changes from solid to liquid, liquid to vapor, and so on. The root is the Latin volatilis, "fleeting, transitory, flying."
Vocabulary lists containing volatility
This Week in Words: October 21- 27, 2018
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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.
It gives a new stock’s early volatility time to cool off while institutional investors accumulate shares, establishing a potential price floor.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026
"We've had eight presidents in 10 years, 24 justice ministers, 32 interior ministers. That's high volatility."
From BBC • Jun. 6, 2026
Ten stocks survived this winnowing process, and they are listed in ascending order of their volatility.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 6, 2026
While the base provides a good entry point to avoid initial volatility, investors can look for several technical green flags that tilt the odds in their favor.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026
The overcrowding lent a sense of chaos and volatility.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
