instability

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: in=sta=bil=i=ty

CIDE DICTIONARY

instability, n. [L. instabilitas: cf. F. instabilité.].

•  The quality or condition of being unstable; lack of stability, firmness, or steadiness; liability to give way or to fail; insecurity; precariousness; as, the instability of a building.  [1913 Webster]
•  Lack of determination of fixedness; inconstancy; fickleness; mutability; changeableness; as, instability of character, temper, custom, etc.  Addison.

Syn. -- Inconstancy; fickleness; changeableness; wavering; unsteadiness; unstableness.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

instability, n. (pl. -ies)
1 a lack of stability.
2 Psychol. unpredictability in behaviour etc.
3 an instance of instability.

Etymology

ME f. F instabilit{eacute} f. L instabilitas -tatis f. instabilis (as IN-(1), STABLE(1))

THESAURUS

instability

ambitendency, ambivalence, caducity, capriciousness, chanciness, change of mind, changeability, changeableness, choppiness, corruptibility, criticalness, danger, dappleness, death, decrepitude, delicacy, desultoriness, deviability, deviation, difference, differentiation, disorder, divarication, divergence, diversification, double-mindedness, doubtfulness, dubiety, dubiousness, eccentricity, ephemerality, ephemeralness, erraticism, evanescence, fence-sitting, fence-straddling, fickleness, finitude, fleetingness, flightiness, freakishness, fugacity, hazard, hazardousness, impermanence, impermanency, impulsiveness, incapacity, inconsistency, inconstancy, indecision, indecisiveness, inequality, infirmity, infirmity of purpose, insecurity, insipidity, insolidity, insubstantiality, invalidism, irregularity, irresolution, jerkiness, mercuriality, momentariness, moodiness, mortality, motleyness, mugwumpery, mugwumpism, mutability, nonconformism, nonconformity, nonstandardization, nonuniformity, peril, perilousness, perishability, pluralism, precariousness, raggedness, restlessness, ricketiness, risk, riskiness, second thoughts, senility, shakiness, shiftiness, shiftingness, slipperiness, speculativeness, sword of Damocles, tergiversation, ticklish business, ticklishness, totteriness, touchiness, transience, transiency, transientness, transitoriness, treacherousness, treachery, unauthenticity, unauthoritativeness, uncertainty, unconformism, unconformity, undecidedness, undependability, undeterminedness, unevenness, unfaithworthiness, unfirmness, unfixedness, unhealthiness, unorthodoxy, unpredictability, unreliability, unsafeness, unsettledness, unsettlement, unsolidity, unsoundness, unstableness, unsteadfastness, unsteadiness, unsturdiness, unsubstantiality, unsureness, untrustworthiness, vapidity, variability, variation, variegation, variety, variousness, versatility, volatility, wantonness, wateriness, wavering, waywardness, whimsicality, wishy-washiness

ROGET THESAURUS

instability

Danger

N danger, peril, insecurity, jeopardy, risk, hazard, venture, precariousness, slipperiness, instability, defenselessness, exposure, vulnerability, vulnerable point, heel of Achilles, forlorn hope, leap in the dark, road to ruin, faciles descensus Averni, hairbreadth escape, cause for alarm, source of danger, rock ahead, breakers ahead, storm brewing, clouds in the horizon, clouds gathering, warning, alarm, apprehension, in danger, endangered, fraught with danger, dangerous, hazardous, perilous, parlous, periculous, unsafe, unprotected &c (safe, protect), insecure, untrustworthy, built upon, sand, on a sandy basis, wildcat, defenseless, fenceless, guardless, harborless, unshielded, vulnerable, expugnable, exposed, open to, aux abois, at bay, on the wrong side of the wall, on a lee shore, on the rocks, at stake, in question, precarious, critical, ticklish, slippery, slippy, hanging by a thread, with a halter round one's neck, between the hammer and the anvil, between Scylla and Charybdis, between a rock and a hard place, between the devil and the deep blue sea, between two fires, on the edge of a precipice, on the brink of a precipice, on the verge of a precipice, on the edge of a volcano, in the lion's den, on slippery ground, under fire, not out of the wood, unwarned, unadmonished, unadvised, unprepared, off one's guard, tottering, unstable, unsteady, shaky, top-heavy, tumbledown, ramshackle, crumbling, waterlogged, helpless, guideless, in a bad way, reduced to the last extremity, at the last extremity, trembling in the balance, nodding to its fall, threatening, ominous, illomened, alarming, explosive, adventurous, incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim, nam tua res agitur paries dum proximus ardet.

Changeableness

N changeableness, mutability, inconstancy, versatility, mobility, instability, unstable equilibrium, vacillation, fluctuation, vicissitude, alternation, restlessness, fidgets, disquiet, disquietude, inquietude, unrest, agitation, moon, Proteus, chameleon, quicksilver, shifting sands, weathercock, harlequin, Cynthia of the minute, April showers, wheel of Fortune, transientness, changeable, changeful, changing, mutable, variable, checkered, ever changing, protean, proteiform, versatile, unstaid, inconstant, unsteady, unstable, unfixed, unsettled, fluctuating, restless, agitated, erratic, fickle, irresolute, capricious, touch and go, inconsonant, fitful, spasmodic, vibratory, vagrant, wayward, desultory, afloat, alternating, alterable, plastic, mobile, transient, wavering, seesaw, off and on, a rolling stone gathers no moss, pictra mossa non fa muschis, honores mutant mores, varium et mutabile semper femina.