Link Centre Dictionary

unstable

uns·table

UK/ʌnˈsteɪ.bəl/ US/ʌˈnsteɪbʌl/ fairly common

adjective

1.

lacking stability or fixity or firmness

  • “unstable political conditions”
  • “the tower proved to be unstable in the high wind”
  • “an unstable world economy”
2.

highly or violently reactive

  • “sensitive and highly unstable compounds”
Similar
3.

affording no ease or reassurance

  • “a precarious truce”
Synonyms
Similar
4.

suffering from severe mental illness

  • “of unsound mind”
Similar
5.

disposed to psychological variability

  • “his rather unstable religious convictions”
Similar
6.

subject to change; variable

  • “a fluid situation fraught with uncertainty”
  • “everything was unstable following the coup”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From un- (reversive prefix) + stable.

Phrases

  • emotionally unstable personality disorder
  • unstable equilibrium

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.