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Unstable vs Vulnerable - What's the difference?

unstable | vulnerable |

As adjectives the difference between unstable and vulnerable

is that unstable is having a strong tendency to change while vulnerable is more or most likely to be exposed to the chance of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.

unstable

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Having a strong tendency to change.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.
  • Fluctuating; not constant.
  • Fickle.
  • Unpredictable.
  • (chemistry) Readily decomposable.
  • (physics) Radioactive, especially with a short half-life.
  • Synonyms

    * instable (rare) * (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) precarious, rickety, shaky, tottering, unsafe, unsteady, wobbly

    Antonyms

    * stable

    Anagrams

    *

    vulnerable

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • More or most likely to be exposed to the chance of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 29, author=Kevin Mitchell, work=the Guardian
  • , title= Roger Federer back from Wimbledon 2012 brink to beat Julien Benneteau , passage=The elimination of Federer after Nadal's loss to Lukas Rosol would have created mild panic among the fans of these gloriously gifted but now clearly vulnerable geniuses. }}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Mark Tran
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=1, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Denied an education by war , passage=One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks on schools
  • (computing) More likely to be exposed to malicious programs or viruses.
  • Synonyms

    * (exposed to attack) defenceless, helpless, powerless, unguarded, unprotected, weak

    Antonyms

    * (exposed to attack) durable, indomitable, invincible, invulnerable, powerful, strong

    Derived terms

    * vulnerability * vulnerably