volatile - Definitions from Dictionary.com

13 results for: volatile

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

vol·a·tile

Audio Help [vol-uh-tl, -til or, especially Brit., -tahyl] Pronunciation Key

–adjective

1.	evaporating rapidly; passing off readily in the form of vapor: Acetone is a volatile solvent.

2.	tending or threatening to break out into open violence; explosive: a volatile political situation.

3.	changeable; mercurial; flighty: a volatile disposition.

4.	(of prices, values, etc.) tending to fluctuate sharply and regularly: volatile market conditions.

5.	fleeting; transient: volatile beauty.

6.	Computers. of or pertaining to storage that does not retain data when electrical power is turned off or fails.

7.	able to fly or flying.

–noun

8.	a volatile substance, as a gas or solvent.

[Origin: 1250–1300; ME < L volātilis, equiv. to volāt(us) (ptp. of volāre to fly; see -ate¹) + -ilis -ile

]

—Related forms

vol·a·til·i·ty

Audio Help [vol-uh-til-i-tee] Pronunciation Key, vol·a·tile·ness, noun

—Synonyms 2. eruptive, unstable, unsettled.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
volatile

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

vol·a·tile Audio Help (vŏl'ə-tl, -tīl') Pronunciation Key
adj.

Chemistry
1. Evaporating readily at normal temperatures and pressures.
2. That can be readily vaporized.
3. Tending to vary often or widely, as in price: the ups and downs of volatile stocks.
4. Inconstant; fickle: a flirt's volatile affections.
5. Lighthearted; flighty: in a volatile mood.
6. Ephemeral; fleeting.
1. Tending to vary often or widely, as in price: the ups and downs of volatile stocks.
2. Inconstant; fickle: a flirt's volatile affections.
3. Lighthearted; flighty: in a volatile mood.
4. Ephemeral; fleeting.
Tending to violence; explosive: a volatile situation with troops and rioters eager for a confrontation.
Flying or capable of flying; volant.

[French, from Old French, from Latin volātilis, flying, from volātus, past participle of volāre, to fly.]

vol'a·tile n., vol'a·til'i·ty (-tĭl'ĭ-tē), vol'a·tile·ness (-tl-nĭs, -tīl'-) n.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
volatile

1597 "fine or light," also "evaporating rapidly" (1605), from M.Fr. volatile, from L. volatilis "fleeting, transitory, flying," from pp. stem of volare "to fly," of unknown origin. Sense of "readily changing, fickle" is first recorded 1647. Volatiles in M.E. meant "birds, butterflies, and other winged creatures" (c.1300).

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

volatile
adjective
1.	evaporating readily at normal temperatures and pressures; "volatile oils"; "volatile solvents" [ant: nonvolatile]
2.	liable to lead to sudden change or violence; "an explosive issue"; "a volatile situation with troops and rioters eager for a confrontation" [syn: explosive]
3.	marked by erratic changeableness in affections or attachments; "fickle friends"; "a flirt's volatile affections" [syn: fickle]
4.	tending to vary often or widely; "volatile stocks"; "volatile emotions"
noun
1.	a volatile substance; a substance that changes readily from solid or liquid to a vapor; "it was heated to evaporate the volatiles"

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

volatile Audio Help (vŏl'ə-tl) Pronunciation Key
Changing easily from liquid to vapor at normal temperatures and pressures. Essential oils used in perfumes are highly volatile.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

volatile vol·a·tile (vŏl'ə-tl, -tīl')
adj.

Evaporating readily at normal temperatures and pressures.
That can be readily vaporized.
Tending to violence; explosive, as of behavior.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: ¹vol·a·tile
Pronunciation: 'väl-&t-^&l, esp Brit -&-"tIl
Function: noun
: a volatilesubstance

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: ²volatile
Function: adjective
: readily vaporizable at a relatively low temperature —vol·a·til·i·ty /"väl-&-'til-&t-E/ noun plural -ties

Wallstreet Words - Cite This Source - Share This
volatile

Tending to be subject to large price fluctuations. Traders generally prefer volatile securities if they buy and sell on short-term price movements. See also beta.

Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investor by David L. Scott.
Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

volatile
1. volatile variable.
2. See non-volatile storage.
(1997-06-05)

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Volatile

Ve*loc"i*ty\, n.; pl. Velocities. [L. velocitas, from velox, -ocis, swift, quick; perhaps akin to v?lare to fly (see Volatile): cf. F. v['e]locit['e].]

1. Quickness of motion; swiftness; speed; celerity; rapidity; as, the velocity of wind; the velocity of a planet or comet in its orbit or course; the velocity of a cannon ball; the velocity of light.

Note: In such phrases, velocity is more generally used than celerity. We apply celerity to animals; as, a horse or an ostrich runs with celerity; but bodies moving in the air or in ethereal space move with greater or less velocity, not celerity. This usage is arbitrary, and perhaps not universal.

2. (Mech.) Rate of motion; the relation of motion to time, measured by the number of units of space passed over by a moving body or point in a unit of time, usually the number of feet passed over in a second. See the Note under Speed.

Angular velocity. See under Angular.

Initial velocity, the velocity of a moving body at starting; especially, the velocity of a projectile as it leaves the mouth of a firearm from which it is discharged.

Relative velocity, the velocity with which a body approaches or recedes from another body, whether both are moving or only one.

Uniform velocity, velocity in which the same number of units of space are described in each successive unit of time.

Variable velocity, velocity in which the space described varies from instant, either increasing or decreasing; -- in the former case called accelerated velocity, in the latter, retarded velocity; the acceleration or retardation itself being also either uniform or variable.

Virtual velocity. See under Virtual.

Note: In variable velocity, the velocity, strictly, at any given instant, is the rate of motion at that instant, and is expressed by the units of space, which, if the velocity at that instant were continued uniform during a unit of time, would be described in the unit of time; thus, the velocity of a falling body at a given instant is the number of feet which, if the motion which the body has at that instant were continued uniformly for one second, it would pass through in the second. The scientific sense of velocity differs from the popular sense in being applied to all rates of motion, however slow, while the latter implies more or less rapidity or quickness of motion.

Syn: Swiftness; celerity; rapidity; fleetness; speed.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Volatile

Vol"a*tile\, a. [F. volatil, L. volatilis, fr. volare to fly, perhaps akin to velox swift, E. velocity. Cf. Volley.]

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

2. Capable of wasting away, or of easily passing into the a["e]riform state; subject to evaporation.

Note: Substances which affect the smell with pungent or fragrant odors, as musk, hartshorn, and essential oils, are called volatile substances, because they waste away on exposure to the atmosphere. Alcohol and ether are called volatile liquids for a similar reason, and because they easily pass into the state of vapor on the application of heat. On the contrary, gold is a fixed substance, because it does not suffer waste, even when exposed to the heat of a furnace; and oils are called fixed when they do not evaporate on simple exposure to the atmosphere.

3. Fig.: Light-hearted; easily affected by circumstances; airy; lively; hence, changeable; fickle; as, a volatile temper.

You are as giddy and volatile as ever. --Swift.

Volatile alkali. (Old Chem.) See under Alkali.

Volatile liniment, a liniment composed of sweet oil and ammonia, so called from the readiness with which the latter evaporates.

Volatile oils. (Chem.) See Essential oils, under Essential.

On-line Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

volatile

volatile: in CancerWEB's On-line Medical Dictionary

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