Instability

How to spell instability

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce instability

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does instability mean?

1. nounThe condition of being unsteady, unreliable, or liable to sudden change.

Instability in a sentence

• The report blamed years of political instability for the collapse in foreign investment.

• Engineers warned that the cracked foundation caused dangerous instability in the upper floors.

Where does instability come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin instabilitas, meaning 'unsteadiness' or 'lack of firmness', which was built from instabilis, the negative of stabilis 'firm, steady'. That adjective in turn rests on the verb stare, meaning 'to stand', so at its core the word literally pictures something that cannot keep standing. English took it up in the 1400s, partly through Old French instabilite and partly straight from the Latin, first describing wavering character or fickleness before broadening to physical, structural, and political senses. The same stare root stands quietly inside a whole family of relatives such as 'stable', 'station', 'statue', and 'establish'. Remembering that the word is simply 'in-' added to 'stability' is the cleanest way to keep the spelling intact, since the trap is mainly the unstressed middle vowels.

How the word is built

• in- (not)
• stabil (from Latin stabilis: firm, steady)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix)