variability

American  

[vair-ee-uh-bil-i-tee] / ˌvɛər i əˈbɪl ɪ ti /

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.

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Other Word Forms

• hypervariability noun
• nonvariability noun

Etymology

Origin of variability

variable ( def. ) + -ity ( def. )

Example Sentences

The technology could be useful in solving complex supply chain variability.

From The Wall Street Journal

Joseph replied that it robbed them of strategic variability, later in the race.

From BBC

Their short lifetime, combined with the natural variability of clouds, makes aerosol-cloud interactions the biggest source of uncertainty in climate forecasts.

From Science Daily

Geochemist Jung notes, "Our mechanism explains the variability of Sargassum growth better than any previous approaches. However, there is still uncertainty as to whether and to what extent other factors also play a role."

From Science Daily

“I don’t know if the auctions will turn out weak, but the shutdown increases the variability of outcomes” for this week’s government-debt sales.

From MarketWatch

Related Words

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