labile

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈleɪbaɪl/

  • Audio (RP)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪbaɪl

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 946730821:

     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.

• lability
• lapse

• labile in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• labile in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• labile at OneLook Dictionary Search

• Belial, Biella, alible, liable

labile

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

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

• IPA^(key): /la.bil/

• Audio (Belgium)

  (file)

labile (plural labiles)

1. labile

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

• baille, bâille, bâillé

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

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

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

• labilmente

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

• Biella, biella

lābile

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of lābilis