From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Instability \In'sta*bil"i*ty\, noun; pl. {Instabilities}. [L. instabilitas: cf. F. instabilit['e].]
1. 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.
2. Lack of determination of fixedness; inconstancy; fickleness; mutability; changeableness; as, instability of character, temper, custom, etc. --Addison.
Syn: Inconstancy; fickleness; changeableness; wavering; unsteadiness; unstableness.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: an unstable order [ant: {stability}]
2: unreliability attributable to being unstable
3: a state of disequilibrium (as may occur in cases of inner ear disease) [syn: {imbalance}, {unbalance}] [ant: {balance}]
4: the quality or attribute of being unstable and irresolute [syn: {unstableness}] [ant: {stability}, {stability}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
146 Moby Thesaurus words for "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
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