Meaning & use
Metastable
Last updated
Describing a physical or chemical state that appears stable but can shift to a more stable state if disturbed.
See it in a sentence
Supercooled water is metastable and will freeze instantly if it's jostled or seeded with a crystal.
The alloy exists in a metastable phase at room temperature, changing structure only when heated.
A note on using this word
Metastability appears across physics, chemistry, and even ecology, wherever a system sits in a shallow energy well rather than the lowest possible one.
Words with a similar meaning
unstable equilibriumtransient state
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Words with an opposite meaning
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