stability

English

Etymology

From Middle English stabletee, stabilite, from Old French stabilité, from Latin root of stabilitas (“firmness, steadfastness”), from stabilis (“steadfast, firm”). Displaced native Old English staþolfæstnes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stəˈbɪlɪti/, [stəˈbɪlɪɾi]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪlɪti

Noun

stability (countable and uncountable, plural stabilities)

1. The condition of being stable or in equilibrium, and thus resistant to change.

   Synonym: stableness

   Antonym: instability

   This platform offers good stability

2. The tendency to recover from perturbations.

   emotional stability

   • 2025 February 13, Charles Hugh Smith, The Not-So-Strange Paradox of American Power and Dysfunction‎:

     Globalization has re-ordered the global economy in ways that are destructive to civic stability, as decentralized, localized producers cannot compete with globalized, commoditized crops, capital, labor and goods.

Derived terms

• acidostability
• angle of vanishing stability
• autostability
• biostability
• bistability
• chemostability
• continent of stability
• cryostability
• dimensional stability
• directional stability
• electronic stability control
• Fourier stability analysis
• halostability
• hyperstability
• hypostability
• island of stability
• limit of positive stability
• mechanostability
• mesostability
• metacentric stability
• metastability
• monostability
• multistability
• nonstability
• overstability
• photostability
• polystability
• prestability
• price stability
• quasistability
• semistability
• stability conditions
• superstability
• thermostability
• tristability
• ultrastability
• von Neumann stability analysis

Translations

condition of being stable

Afrikaans: stabiliteit Arabic: اِسْتِقْرَار (istiqrār) Armenian: կայունություն (hy) (kayunutʻyun) Asturian: estabilidá f Azerbaijani: sabitlik (az), dayanıqlılıq Belarusian: стабі́льнасць f (stabílʹnascʹ) Bulgarian: стабилност (bg) f (stabilnost), устойчивост (bg) (ustojčivost) Catalan: estabilitat f Chinese: Mandarin: 穩定性 / 稳定性 (zh) (wěndìngxìng), 穩定 / 稳定 (zh) (wěndìng) Czech: stabilita (cs) f Dutch: stabiliteit (nl) Esperanto: stabileco Estonian: stabiilsus Finnish: vakaus (fi) French: stabilité (fr) Galician: estabilidade (gl) f German: Stabilität (de) f Hebrew: יציבות f (yatsivút) Hungarian: stabilitás (hu) Icelandic: stöðugleiki m Indonesian: stabilitas (id), kestabilan (id) Interlingua: stabilitate Irish: diongbháilteacht f, diongbháil f Italian: stabilità (it) f Japanese: 安定性 (あんていせい, anteisei), 安定 (ja) (あんてい, antei), スタビリティー (sutabiritī) Latin: firmitās f, firmitūdō, stabilitās f Malay: kestabilan Manchu: ᠠᡴᡩᡠᠨ (akdun) Maori: pūmautanga Mongolian: Cyrillic: бат бөх байдал (bat böx bajdal), тогтвортой байдал (togtvortoj bajdal) Norwegian: Bokmål: stabilitet m Nynorsk: stabilitet m Old English: staþolfæstnes f Ottoman Turkish: دنك (denk), موازنه (muvâzene), اعتدال (i’tidâl) (equilibrium, poise) Polish: stabilność (pl) f Portuguese: estabilidade (pt) f Romanian: stabilitate (ro) f Russian: стаби́льность (ru) f (stabílʹnostʹ), усто́йчивость (ru) f (ustójčivostʹ) Spanish: estabilidad (es) f Swedish: stabilitet (sv) c Tagalog: pagkamatatag Turkish: stabilite (tr) Ukrainian: стабі́льність f (stabílʹnistʹ)

tendency to recover from perturbations

Afrikaans: stabiliteit Bulgarian: стабилност (bg) f (stabilnost) Finnish: vakaus (fi) French: stabilité (fr) f German: Stabilität (de) f Hebrew: יציבות f (yatsivút) Interlingua: stabilitate Italian: stabilità (it) f Latin: firmitas f, firmitudo f, stabilitas f Malay: kestabilan Portuguese: estabilidade (pt) f Romanian: stabilitate (ro) Spanish: estabilidad (es) f Turkish: direnç (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Dutch: (please verify) stabiliteit (nl) f