mutability

[ myoo-tuh-bil-i-tee ]

noun

1. the quality of being liable to undergo change or alteration:

   With the realization of cancer's mutability, they now fear it might not be the same disease in everyone.

2. the quality of constantly changing; transient or transitory quality:

   National borders can have a permanence that contrasts with the almost infinite mutability of the cultures contained within them.

3. Computers. (in object-oriented programming) the characteristic of an object having properties whose values can change while the object itself maintains a unique identity:

   The mutability of the "sales report" object allows properties like sales period and salesperson to be updated without losing the reference to the report elsewhere in the application.

Other Words From

• hy·per·mu·ta·bil·i·ty noun
• hy·per·mu·ta·ble·ness noun
• non·mu·ta·bil·i·ty noun
• non·mu·ta·ble·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of mutability¹

First recorded in 1400–50; from French mutabilité, from Latin mūtābilitāt-, stem of mūtābilitās “changeability,” equivalent to mūtābili(s) “changeable” ( mutable ( def ) ) + -tās -ty ²( def )

Example Sentences

The effect is of a delirious mutability, in which the poems coalesce almost in spite of themselves.

From Los Angeles Times

I think there’s a certain theme of mutability.

From New York Times

At one point, as I was peppering him with questions about his mutability, he gestured to consumers throughout the store.

From New York Times

As Hobbs has argued, the mutability of racial self-identification open to racially ambiguous people “reveals the bankruptcy of the race idea” while “offering a searing critique of racism” and “disarming racialized thinking.”

From New York Times

The subjects’ mutability echoes the local artist’s slippery style, which incorporates collage and shifts easily from realism to expressionism.

From Washington Post

Related Words

• anxiety
• fluctuation
• insecurity
• uncertainty
• volatility
• vulnerability
• weakness