variability

[ vair-ee-uh-bil-i-tee ]

noun

1. the quality of being subject to change, especially frequent, random, or short-term change: Ensuring effective cooperation in home care is difficult because of the variability of schedules and tasks of both patients and caregivers.

   On a longer time scale, climate variability translates into shortages of food and water worldwide.

   Ensuring effective cooperation in home care is difficult because of the variability of schedules and tasks of both patients and caregivers.

2. the quality of including different kinds, or of being different from one case to the other; diversity:

   Healthcare administrators noted the variability among nursing education programs and called for standardization.

Other Words From

• hy·per·var·i·a·bil·i·ty noun
• non·var·i·a·bil·i·ty noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of variability¹

variable ( def ) + -ity ( def )

Example Sentences

Nine times, the observed infant mortality rate was higher than the expected rate, and the difference was too large to be explained by natural variability or random chance, they found.

From Los Angeles Times

In E.coli, this means that its pangenome — the totality of genes that are found across all strains — has a huge amount of variability.

From Salon

The latest iteration of the Autocado recognizes variability in the fruit and automatically adjusts itself to accommodate the size of the avocados being loaded, Chipotle officials stated.

From Los Angeles Times

One of the challenges for forecasters comes from the natural variability in our weather patterns.

From BBC

That’s typical of most scientists, especially biologists, who are led by the infinite variability of the natural world to be innately averse to declaring anything conclusively possible or impossible.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

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