Meaning & use
volatility
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountablefinance
A tendency for prices or markets to rise and fall sharply and unpredictably.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: market volatility.
Patterns
- volatility in something
- volatility of something
Investors worry about volatility in oil prices.
Volatility rose sharply after the announcement.
The fund is designed to reduce volatility.
noununcountable
A tendency for moods, situations or behavior to change suddenly and become hard to predict.
Grammar: Can describe people, politics or weather.
Patterns
- the volatility of something
Nobody expected the volatility of his temper.
Political volatility made businesses nervous.
The volatility of the weather ruined the plans.
noununcountabletechnicalchemistry
In chemistry, how easily a liquid or substance turns into vapor.
Grammar: A technical measure, higher for alcohol than for water.
Patterns
- the volatility of a liquid
The volatility of petrol creates a fire risk.
Acetone has high volatility.
Scientists compared the volatility of the two solvents.
Common combinations
- market volatility
- Market volatility scared small investors.
- high volatility
- The stock has high volatility.
- increased volatility
- Increased volatility followed the election.
- price volatility
- Farmers face price volatility every year.
- emotional volatility
- Emotional volatility can strain friendships.
Synonyms and how they differ
- instability
- Instability is more general and means lacking steadiness, not specifically sharp changes.
- unpredictability
- Unpredictability stresses that you can't tell what will happen, while volatility stresses sudden swings.
- fluctuation
- A fluctuation is one movement up or down, while volatility is the tendency to fluctuate.
- turbulence
- Turbulence suggests disorder over a period and is more figurative than volatility.
Opposites
Word family
- volatile adjective
- likely to change quickly or turn to vapor
- volatilize verb
- to turn into vapor
- volatilization noun
- the process of turning into vapor
Commonly confused: volatility or volatile? volatility or volition?
volatility vs volatile
Volatile is the adjective and volatility is the noun for the same quality.
volatility vs volition
Volition is the power to choose, which is unrelated.
Practice
Traders were uneasy because of the ___ in stock prices.
Choose one answer.
Volatility means sharp unpredictable swings, which unsettles traders. Stability means the opposite, and mobility and utility are unrelated.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “volatility”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.