UNSTABLE

fluid, unstable

(adjective) subject to change; variable; “a fluid situation fraught with uncertainty”; “everything was unstable following the coup”

precarious, unstable

(adjective) affording no ease or reassurance; “a precarious truce”

unstable

(adjective) highly or violently reactive; “sensitive and highly unstable compounds”

unstable

(adjective) disposed to psychological variability; “his rather unstable religious convictions”

unstable

(adjective) lacking stability or fixity or firmness; “unstable political conditions”; “the tower proved to be unstable in the high wind”; “an unstable world economy”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Adjective

unstable (comparative more unstable, superlative most unstable)

Having a strong tendency to change.

Fluctuating; not constant.

Fickle.

Unpredictable.

(chemistry) Readily decomposable.

(physics) Radioactive, especially with a short half-life.

Synonyms

• (having strong tendency to change): labile

• (fluctuating, not constant): instable (rare); see also unsteady

• (fickle): arbitrary, capricious

• (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over): tottering, unsteady, wobbly; see also rickety

Antonyms

• stable

Verb

unstable (third-person singular simple present unstables, present participle unstabling, simple past and past participle unstabled)

(transitive) To release (an animal) from a stable.

Anagrams

• abluents, ant-blues, bleaunts, blue ants, tunables, unablest

Source: Wiktionary


Un*sta"ble, a. Etym: [Cf. Instable.]

Definition: Not stable; not firm, fixed, or constant; subject to change or overthrow.

– Un*sta"ble*ness, n. Chaucer. Unstable equilibrium. See Stable equilibrium, under Stable.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

22 January 2025

MEGALITH

(noun) memorial consisting of a very large stone forming part of a prehistoric structure (especially in western Europe)


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Coffee Trivia

According to Guinness World Records, the largest iced coffee is 14,228.1 liters and was created by Caffé Bene (South Korea), in Yangju, South Korea, on 17 July 2014. They poured iced black Americano on the giant cup that measured 3.3 meters tall and 2.62 meters wide.

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