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Volatile vs Vagary - What's the difference?

volatile | vagary |

As an adjective volatile

is (physics) evaporating or vaporizing readily under normal conditions.

As a noun vagary is

an erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action.

volatile

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (physics) evaporating or vaporizing readily under normal conditions.
  • (of a substance, informal) explosive.
  • (of a price etc) variable or erratic.
  • (of a person) quick to become angry or violent.
  • fickle.
  • temporary or ephemeral.
  • (of a situation) potentially violent.
  • (computing, of a variable) having its associated memory immediately updated with any changes in value.
  • (computing, of memory) whose content is lost when the computer is powered down
  • (obsolete) Passing through the air on wings, or by the buoyant force of the atmosphere; flying; having the power to fly.
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * volatility * volatile memory

    vagary

    English

    Noun

    (vagaries)
  • An erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action.
  • * 1871 , , At Last: A Christmas In The West Indies , ch. 8:
  • It now turns out that the Pitch Lake, like most other things, owes its appearance on the surface to no convulsion or vagary at all, but to a most slow, orderly, and respectable process of nature, by which buried vegetable matter, which would have become peat, and finally brown coal, in a temperate climate, becomes, under the hot tropic soil, asphalt and oil.
  • An impulsive or illogical desire; a caprice or whim.
  • * 1905 , , War of the Classes , Preface:
  • And then came the day when my socialism grew respectable,—still a vagary of youth, it was held, but romantically respectable.

    Derived terms

    * vagarity * vagarious

    See also

    * vaguery