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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

volatile.

Evaporating or vaporizing readily under normal conditions.

8 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈvɒl.əˌtaɪl/Received-Pronunciation[ˈvɒl.əˌtʰaɪ̯l]Received-Pronunciation/ˈvɑ.lə.təl/General-American[ˈvɑl.ə.tʰl̩]General-American
  1. Evaporating or vaporizing readily under normal conditions.

  2. Of a substance, explosive.

    informal
  3. Of a price, variable or erratic.

  4. Of a person, quick to become angry or violent.

    a volatile man
  5. Fickle.

  6. Temporary or ephemeral.

  7. Of a situation potentially violent.

  8. Of a variable etc., having its associated memory immediately updated with any changes in value.

  9. Of memory, whose content is lost when the computer is powered down.

  10. Passing through the air on wings, or by the buoyant force of the atmosphere; flying; having the power to fly.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle French volatile, from Latin volātilis (“flying; swift; temporary; volatile”), from volō (“to fly”).

noun/ˈvɒl.əˌtaɪl/Received-Pronunciation[ˈvɒl.əˌtʰaɪ̯l]Received-Pronunciation/ˈvɑ.lə.təl/General-American[ˈvɑl.ə.tʰl̩]General-American
  1. A chemical or compound that changes into a gas easily.

  2. A variable that is volatile, i.e. has its associated memory immediately updated with any change in value.

Where this word comes from

From Middle French volatile, from Latin volātilis (“flying; swift; temporary; volatile”), from volō (“to fly”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.