labile

adj.

1. Open to change; adaptable: an emotionally labile person.
2. Chemistry. Constantly undergoing or likely to undergo change; unstable: a labile compound.

[Middle English labil, forgetful, wandering, from Old French labile, from Late Latin lābilis, apt to slip, from lābī, to slip.]

lability la·bil'i·ty (-bĭl'ĭ-tē) n.

Describing a chemical compound in which certain atoms or groups can easily be replaced by other atoms or groups. The term is applied to coordination complexes in which ligands can easily be replaced by other ligands in an equilibrium reaction.

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(luh-BIL-i-tee)

noun
Susceptibility to change, lapse, error or instability.

Etymology
Via French/Middle English from Late Latin labilis (prone to slip), from labi (to slip). Other words from the same root are avalanche, lapse, and lava.

Usage
"Water, that is, can itself be thought of as an element without qualities, and in its lability it is a strikingly appropriate subject for Ulrich's sympathetic attention. Always itself yet always adaptable to multiple ways of manifesting itself ..." — Michael Andre Bernstein; The Man Without Qualities; The New Republic (Washington, DC); May 29, 1995.

"Most of us have heroes, I guess. Mine is Lance Armstrong, who beat testicular cancer to become the greatest cyclist in the world. Watching him pedalling through the fields of pain in the Tour de France, I was struck by the absence of any sign of emotional lability." — David Beresford; Education: Operation Countdown; The Guardian (London, UK); Jul 23, 2002.

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(lā'bīl)
adj

Unstable, as labile fever.

The quality of being labile.

IN BRIEF: adj. - Open to change; (chemistry, physics, biology) readily undergoing change or breakdown.

Tutor's tip: With "labile" (flexible) lips the flautist lured a sweet "labial" (of the lips) hum from her instrument and received a label (identification) of expert from the critics.

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - ustabil, labil

Nederlands (Dutch)
labiel, niet stabiel, wankelbaar

Français (French)
adj. - labile

Deutsch (German)
adj. - unbeständig, labil, gleitend

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - ασταθής

Italiano (Italian)
labile

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - instável

Русский (Russian)
неустойчивый, лабильный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - lábil, inestable, precario

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - instabil, labil

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
不安定的, 易发生变化的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 不安定的, 易發生變化的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 변하기 쉬운, 불안정한, 유연한

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 変わりやすい, 不安定な

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) متغير, قابل للتغيير, غير مستقر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮לא יציב, רופף, נוטה למעוד‬

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