stability
- 1The condition of being stable or balanced, and therefore resistant to change.
Engineers tested the bridge's stability under heavy loads.
Political stability encouraged foreign companies to invest in the region.
Similarstableness
Oppositeinstability
Note
A Latin borrowing that replaced a native word. English took stabilitas, "firmness, steadfastness," by way of Old French, and it displaced Old English staþolfæstnes. The Latin sense of steadfastness still shapes it: a platform that does not wobble, a government that does not fall. Its opposite is instability, and stableness means the same thing. The plural stabilities is used when separate kinds or measures are being compared.
- 2The tendency of a system to return to its original state after a disturbance.
The aircraft's stability brought it level again after the sudden gust.
Ecologists praised the wetland's stability following the spring flood.
Similarresilience, steadiness, equilibrium
Oppositeinstability, volatility
Note
Here the stress falls on coming back rather than standing still. Something with this kind of stability can be knocked off balance, but it recovers. That is why it pairs so naturally with people and societies, as in emotional stability or civic stability, where the point is resilience under strain. Set beside the sense of resisting change, the difference is simple: one holds its ground, the other regains it.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of stability apart? Answer 1 quick question from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Middle English "stabilite" and Old French "stabilité," derived from Latin "stabilitas" ("firmness, steadfastness"), from "stabilis" ("steadfast, firm"). It replaced the native Old English word "staþolfæstnes."