From , from , from volō ("I fly").

• (British) IPA: /ˈvɒl.əˌtaɪ.(ə)l/
• (America) IPA: /ˈvɑ.lə.təl/, [ˈvɑ.lə.tl̩], [ˈvɑ.lə.ɾɫ̩]

volatile

1. (physics) Evaporating or vaporizing readily under normal conditions.
2. (of a substance, informal) Explosive.
3. (of a price etc) Variable or erratic.
4. (of a person) Quick to become angry or violent.

   a volatile man

5. Fickle.
6. Temporary or ephemeral.
7. (of a situation) Potentially violent.
8. (programming, of a variable etc.) Having its associated memory immediately updated with any changes in value.
9. (computing, of memory) Whose content is lost when the computer is powered down.
10. (obsolete) Passing through the air on wings, or by the buoyant force of the atmosphere; flying; having the power to fly.

• See also Thesaurus:ephemeral

• French: volatil
• German: volatil, flüchtig, verdunstend
• Italian: volatile
• Portuguese: volátil
• Russian: лету́чий
• Spanish: volátil

• Italian: volatile

• French: volatil
• German: schwankend, unbeständig, unstet
• Italian: instabile, incostante, variabile
• Portuguese: instável
• Russian: изме́нчивый

• German: unbeständig
• Italian: volubile
• Russian: непостоя́нный

• German: aufbrausend, labil
• Italian: suscettibile

• German: flüchtig
• Italian: temporaneo, effimero
• Russian: лету́чий

• German: brisant
• Italian: instabile

• French: volatil
• German: volatil
• Italian: volatile
• Russian: энергозависимый

volatile (plural volatiles)

1. A chemical or compound that changes into a gas easily.
2. (programming) A variable that is volatile, i.e. has its associated memory immediately updated with any change in value.
   • 2011, Victor Pankratius, Ali-Reza Adl-Tabatabai, Walter Tichy, Fundamentals of Multicore Software Development, page 74:

     Operations on C++ volatiles do put the compiler on notice that the object may be modified asynchronously, and hence are generally safer to use than ordinary variable accesses.