
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Someone or something described as labile is readily open to change. Labile can also be used as a synonym of unstable to describe things that are readily or continually undergoing chemical, physical, or biological change or breakdown.
// The director was known for being exacting but also labile, open to actors' interpretations of characters.
See the entry >
"Amid this high level of acting skill, [musician Kate] Lindsey stood out with her wonderfully convincing gestures and facial expressions, filling out the character of the more labile younger sister with captivating verisimilitude." — Jeremy Yudkin, The Boston Globe, 17 July 2023
We are confident that you won't slip up or err in learning today's word, despite its etymology. Labile was borrowed into English from French and can be traced back (by way of Middle French labile, meaning "prone to err") to the Latin verb labi, meaning "to slip or fall." Indeed, the first sense of labile in English was "prone to slip, err, or lapse," but that use is now obsolete. Other labi descendants in English include collapse, elapse, and prolapse, as well as lapse itself.
4.5
11891,189 ratings
Someone or something described as labile is readily open to change. Labile can also be used as a synonym of unstable to describe things that are readily or continually undergoing chemical, physical, or biological change or breakdown.
// The director was known for being exacting but also labile, open to actors' interpretations of characters.
See the entry >
"Amid this high level of acting skill, [musician Kate] Lindsey stood out with her wonderfully convincing gestures and facial expressions, filling out the character of the more labile younger sister with captivating verisimilitude." — Jeremy Yudkin, The Boston Globe, 17 July 2023
We are confident that you won't slip up or err in learning today's word, despite its etymology. Labile was borrowed into English from French and can be traced back (by way of Middle French labile, meaning "prone to err") to the Latin verb labi, meaning "to slip or fall." Indeed, the first sense of labile in English was "prone to slip, err, or lapse," but that use is now obsolete. Other labi descendants in English include collapse, elapse, and prolapse, as well as lapse itself.
2,546 Listeners
11,256 Listeners
2,821 Listeners
1,362 Listeners
1,065 Listeners
861 Listeners
506 Listeners
2,307 Listeners
847 Listeners
427 Listeners
403 Listeners
589 Listeners
577 Listeners
135 Listeners
80 Listeners