- lack of stability; unstableness; specif.,
- lack of firmness or steadiness
- lack of determination; irresolution
- tendency to behave or react violently or erratically: the instability of a chemical compound, emotional instability
adjective
The definition of instability is a lack of stability or balance, or a tendency towards unpredictable or erratic behavior.
When you swing from one emotion to another, first feeling happy and then very sad for no reason, this is an example of emotional instability.
YourDictionary definition and usage example. Copyright © 2018 by LoveToKnow Corp
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"instability." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 13 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Instability>.
APA Style
instability. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Instability
instability
Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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MLA Style
"instability." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 13 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Instability>.
APA Style
instability. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Instability
instability
noun
pl. in·sta·bil·i·tiesThe quality or condition of being unstable: economic instability; emotional instability.
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"instability." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 13 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Instability>.
APA Style
instability. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Instability
Noun
(countable and uncountable, plural instabilities)
- (uncountable) The quality of being unstable.
- (physics, countable) A state that is not in equilibrium, or in which a small change has a large irreversible effect.
Origin
From Middle French instabilité, from Latin instabilitas
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
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Cite this page
MLA Style
"instability." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 13 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Instability>.
APA Style
instability. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Instability
Sentence Examples
- Think of the things she would miss and the instability of having no parents.
- And the instability of Gustavus's position.
- The protoplasm is in a condition of instability and is continually breaking down to a certain extent, giving rise to various substances of different degrees of complexity, some of which are again built up by it into its own substances, and others, more simple in composition, are given off.
- A certain instability of character is revealed by the fact that he took up arms against Ramiro, having repented of his renunciation of the world.
- When the velocity of the jet is gradually increased there is a certain range of velocity for which the jet is unstable, so that any deviation from the straight rush-out tends to increase as the jet moves up. If then the jet is just on the point of instability, and is subjected as its base to alternations of motion, the sinuosities impressed on the jet become larger and larger as it flows out, and the flame is as it were folded on itself.
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Words near instability in the dictionary
- instability
- insta-called
- insta-calling
- insta-calls