labile

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lābilis (“apt to slip, transient”), from lābor, lābī (“slip; glide, flow”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈleɪbaɪl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪbaɪl

Adjective

labile (comparative more labile, superlative most labile)

1. Liable to slip, err, fall, or apostatize.
2. Apt or likely to change.

   Synonym: unstable

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     Pythagoras [said] that each thing or matter was ever gliding and labile.

3. (chemistry, of a compound or bond) Kinetically unstable; rapidly cleaved (and possibly reformed).

   Certain drugs can be conjugated to polymer molecules with a linkage that is labile at low pH to effect controlled release in a cellular endosome.

   Water ligands typically bind metals in a labile fashion and are rapidly interchanged in aqueous solution.

4. (linguistics, of a verb) Able to change valency without changing its form; especially, able to be used both transitively and intransitively without changing its form.

Derived terms

• frigolabile
• hemilabile
• labile affect
• labile verb
• nonlabile
• photolabile
• stereolabile
• thermolabile

 

Related terms

• lability
• lapse

Translations

liable to slip, err, fall or apostatize

• Bulgarian: лабилен (bg) (labilen), неустойчив (bg) (neustojčiv)
• Czech: labilní (cs)
• Finnish: labiili (fi)
• German: labil (de)
• Polish: labilny (pl)
• Sicilian: làbbili
• Spanish: lábil (es)
• Swedish: labil (sv)

kinetically unstable; rapidly cleaved

• Bulgarian: лабилен (bg) (labilen)
• Catalan: làbil
• Czech: labilní (cs)
• Finnish: labiili (fi)
• French: labile (fr)
• Italian: labile (it)
• Sicilian: làbbili
• Spanish: lábil (es)

Further reading

• “labile”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “labile”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “labile”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Belial, Biella, alible, liable

Danish

Adjective

labile

1. definite singular of labil
2. indefinite plural of labil
3. definite plural of labil

French

Etymology

From Middle French labile, borrowed from Latin lābilis (“apt to slip, transient”), from lābor, lābī (“slip; glide, flow”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /la.bil/

• Audio (Belgium):

  (file)

Adjective

labile (plural labiles)

1. labile

Descendants

• → Romanian: labil
• → Swedish: labil

Further reading

• “labile”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• baille, bâille, bâillé

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lābilis (“apt to slip, transient”), from lābī (“slip; glide, flow”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈla.bi.le/
• Rhymes: -abile
• Hyphenation: là‧bi‧le

Adjective

labile (plural labili)

1. fleeting, ephemeral
   • 2019 November, Silvia Ferrara, La grande invenzione, Feltrinelli, →ISBN, page 24:

     È vero che la connessione tra parole e natura è labile, ma a volte ci sorprende quanto sia marcata.

     It's true that the link between words and nature is unstable, but sometimes it's surprising how pronounced it is.

2. fickle

Derived terms

• labilmente

Further reading

• labile in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• Biella, biella

Latin

Adjective

lābile

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of lābilis

Swedish

Adjective

labile

1. definite natural masculine singular of labil