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^[1]:

     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

• angle of vanishing stability
• continent of stability
• dimensional stability
• directional stability
• electronic stability control
• Fourier stability analysis
• island of stability
• limit of positive stability
• metacentric stability
• price stability
• stability conditions
• von Neumann stability analysis

Translations

condition of being stable

• Afrikaans: stabiliteit
• 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