Meaning & use
stabilized
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparable
No longer changing wildly, but steady and secure after a period of risk or instability.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after a linking verb: a stabilized economy, or the patient is stabilized.
Patterns
- stabilized after something
- stabilized at something
The patient is now stabilized and resting comfortably.
Prices stabilized at a lower level after the crisis.
The stabilized economy attracted new investors.
verbtransitive or intransitive
Past tense and past participle of stabilize: made or became steady and no longer likely to change suddenly.
Grammar: Takes an object when something is made steady: the team stabilized the bridge; it can also stand alone: the rate stabilized.
Patterns
- stabilized something
- stabilized at something
Engineers stabilized the leaning tower with steel cables.
Her heart rate stabilized after the injection.
The central bank stabilized the currency.
Common combinations
- stabilized condition
- The hospital said his condition had stabilized.
- stabilized prices
- Stabilized prices helped shoppers plan their budgets.
- stabilized at
- The temperature stabilized at twenty degrees.
- stabilized economy
- A stabilized economy encourages long-term investment.
- fully stabilized
- The structure is fully stabilized after the repair.
Synonyms and how they differ
- steadied
- Steadied is more everyday and often describes physical balance, as in steadied the ladder.
- settled
- Settled suggests a calm state after disturbance but without the technical flavor of stabilized.
- secured
- Secured stresses fastening or protecting something, while stabilized stresses ending change or risk.
- levelled off
- Levelled off describes a rising or falling number that flattens, a narrower use than stabilized.
Opposites
Word family
- stabilize verb
- to make or become steady
- stabilization noun
- the process of becoming steady
- stable adjective
- firm and not likely to change or fall
- stability noun
- the state of being steady
- stabilizer noun
- something that keeps a thing steady
Commonly confused: stabilized or stable?
stabilized vs stable
Stable describes a state that is already steady, but stabilized suggests it became steady after a change or a problem.
Practice
The hospital reported that the driver was stabilized. What does that mean?
Choose one answer.
Stabilized means the dangerous changes have stopped and the patient is steady. It does not mean full recovery, which is the tempting wrong choice.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stabilized”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.