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
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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.
These firms have been investing in riskier fixed-income assets, and losses cause by volatility in the interest-rate environment could spill over into the banking sector.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
A surge of investment in leveraged exchange-traded funds generated significant volatility in the domestic stock market, the Bank of Korea said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Bank of America argues that equity markets can withstand more severe bond market shocks than those witnessed so far in 2026 and that volatility may be better guide to risk than Treasury yields at present.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
But it inched up again in its September reading due to heightened fears about market volatility, outliving savings, housing and cognitive decline.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
Since the volatility of these last digits makes them essentially random, every number from 000 to 999 is equally likely to come up.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
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.
