volatile
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English
Etymology
From Middle French volatile, from Latin volātilis (“flying; swift; temporary; volatile”), from volō (“I fly”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈvɒl.əˌtaɪ.(ə)l/
Audio (UK): (file)
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈvɑ.lə.təl/, [ˈvɑ.lə.tl̩], [ˈvɑ.lə.ɾɫ̩]
Audio (US): (file)
Adjective
volatile (comparative more volatile, superlative most volatile)
- (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.
- a volatile man
- Fickle.
- Temporary or ephemeral.
- (of a situation) Potentially violent.
- (programming, of a variable etc.) Having its associated memory immediately updated with any changes in value.
- 2010, Jon Jagger, Nigel Perry, Peter Sestoft, Annotated C# Standard, page 467:
- This method stores a value into a non-volatile field called
result
, then stores true in the volatile fieldfinished
. The main thread waits for the fieldfinished
to be set to true, then reads the fieldresult
.
- (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.
(Can we add an example for this sense?)
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:ephemeral
Derived terms
Translations
evaporating or vaporizing readily under normal conditions
|
(informal) explosive
|
(of a price etc) variable or erratic
|
fickle
|
quick to become angry
|
temporary or ephemeral
|
(of a situation) potentially violent
(computing, of memory) whose content is lost when the computer is powered down
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Noun
volatile (plural volatiles)
- A chemical or compound that changes into a gas easily.
- (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.
French
Pronunciation
Adjective
volatile
Noun
volatile m (plural volatiles)
Further reading
- “volatile”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
German
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Adjective
volatile
- inflection of volatil:
Italian
Etymology
Pronunciation
Adjective
volatile (plural volatili)
Noun
volatile m (plural volatili)
Further reading
- volatile in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Latin
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /u̯oˈlaː.ti.le/, [u̯ɔˈɫ̪äːt̪ɪɫ̪ɛ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /voˈla.ti.le/, [voˈläːt̪ile]
Adjective
volātile
References
- volatile in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
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