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/ˌɪnstəbˈɪlɪti/ Listen

noun

Instability n. (pl. instabilities)

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.

Lack of determination of fixedness; inconstancy; fickleness; mutability; changeableness; as, instability of character, temper, custom, etc.

Synonyms: Inconstancy; fickleness; changeableness; wavering; unsteadiness; unstableness.

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Etymology of 'Instability'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Instability" Quotes from Famous Books

... I am weary of tailors, let me reflect a little upon that divine art of which they are the professors. Alas, for the instability of all human sciences! A few short months ago, in the first edition of this memorable Work, I laid down rules for costume, the value of which, Fashion begins already to destroy. The thoughts which I shall now embody, shall be out of the reach of ...

— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... physiological sphere, the formation of an organism and a fully developed brain; in the psychologic order, the antagonism between the pure subjectivity of the imagination and the objectivity of ratiocinative processes; in other words, between mental instability and stability. As for the results, they appear only in the third period, the resultant of ...

— Essay on the Creative Imagination • Th. Ribot

... is a life of peace. Emotional instability and wretchedness have been displaced by habitual right feeling. Stabilizing her emotions has not impoverished, but enriched her nature. She has mastered the art of enjoying, for self-interests have expanded into love for service. To-day she is a capable, efficient, ...

— Our Nervous Friends - Illustrating the Mastery of Nervousness • Robert S. Carroll

... must all lay it continually and with uttermost humiliation to heart that we all have Captain Anything's opportunism, his self-interest, his insincerity, his instability, and his secret deceitfulness in ourselves. That man knows little of himself who does not despise and hate himself for his secret self-seeking even in the service of God. For, how the love of praise will seduce and corrupt this man, and ...

— Bunyan Characters - Third Series - The Holy War • Alexander Whyte

... so overcome by the news, which is beyond her utmost expectations, that she answers the messenger, "Thou'rt mad to say it:" and on receiving her husband's account of the predictions of the Witches, conscious of his instability of purpose, and that her presence is necessary to goad him on to the consummation of ...

— Hazlitt on English Literature - An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature • Jacob Zeitlin

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