Volatile

Full Definition of VOLATILE

1

: readily vaporizable at a relatively low temperature

2

: flying or having the power to fly

3

b : easily aroused <volatile suspicions>

c : tending to erupt into violence : explosive <a volatile temper>

4

a : unable to hold the attention fixed because of an inherent lightness or fickleness of disposition

b : characterized by or subject to rapid or unexpected change <a volatile market>

5

: difficult to capture or hold permanently : evanescent, transitory

— vol·a·tile·ness noun

— vol·a·til·i·ty \ˌvä-lə-ˈti-lə-tē\ noun

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I am beginning to hear investors say that the best way to beat this volatile market is by trading—anxiously moving in and out of securities as the market ebbs and flows. In my view there is no surer path to the poorhouse. —John W. Rogers, Jr., Forbes, 25 May 2009
Usually, only a few of the volatile chemicals in a fragrance are obviously noticeable to human noses. —Ivan Amato, Science News, 24 Sept. 2005
VOCs (or volatile organic compounds) are thought to be among the potential culprits behind illnesses often lumped under the heading of Sick Building Syndrome. —Scott Schilling, This Old House, March 2005
… it was Elvis who represented rock and roll at its unblushing, volatile best; he was its first master and the embodiment of every reason that adolescents of the postwar years turned to it in favor of the cheerfully torpid pop music … to which their parents were listening. —David Hajdu, New York Review of Books, 9 Oct. 2003
When left unused, make-up has a tendency to dry out because any water or other volatile substances it contains evaporate. —Barry Fox, New Scientist, 9 Aug. 2003
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