volatile
adjective
[ ˈvɒlətʌɪl ]
• (of a substance) easily evaporated at normal temperatures.
• "volatile solvents such as petroleum ether, hexane, and benzene"
• liable to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse.
• "the political situation was becoming more volatile"
Similar:
tense,
strained,
fraught,
uneasy,
uncomfortable,
charged,
explosive,
eruptive,
inflammatory,
turbulent,
in turmoil,
full of upheavals,
hairy,
nail-biting,
white-knuckle,
dodgy,
• (of a computer's memory) retaining data only as long as there is a power supply connected.
volatile
noun
• a volatile substance.
Origin:
Middle English (in the sense ‘creature that flies’, also, as a collective, ‘birds’): from Old French volatil or Latin volatilis, from volare ‘to fly’.
