volatility

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 relating 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.

adjective

1. (of a substance) capable of readily changing from a solid or liquid form to a vapour; having a high vapour pressure and a low boiling point
2. (of persons) disposed to caprice or inconstancy; fickle; mercurial
3. (of circumstances) liable to sudden, unpredictable, or explosive change
4. lasting only a short timevolatile business interests
5. computing (of a memory) not retaining stored information when the power supply is cut off
6. obsolete flying or capable of flight; volant

noun

7. a volatile substance
8. rare a winged creature

adj.

1590s “fine or light,” also “evaporating rapidly” (c.1600), from Middle French volatile, from Latin volatilis “fleeting, transitory, flying,” from past participle stem of volare “to fly” (see volant). Sense of “readily changing, fickle” is first recorded 1640s. Volatiles in Middle English meant “birds, butterflies, and other winged creatures” (c.1300).

adj.

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

1. Changing easily from liquid to vapor at normal temperatures and pressures. Essential oils used in perfumes are highly volatile.