labile

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
8
Words With Friends
11
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/ˈleɪbaɪl/ (UK)

Definition of labile

4 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Liable to slip, err, fall, or apostatize.
See all 4 definitions

adj

  1. Liable to slip, err, fall, or apostatize.
  2. Apt or likely to change.
    “Pythagoras [said] that each thing or matter was ever gliding and labile.”
  3. 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. Able to change valency without changing its form; especially, able to be used both transitively and intransitively without changing its form.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

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

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