It's the Word of the Day podcast for November 12th.

Today's word is labile, spelled L-A-B-I-L-E.

Laybile is an adjective.

Someone or something described as labile is readily open to change.

Labile can also be used as a synonym of the word unstable,

to describe things that are readily or continually undergoing chemical, physical, or biological change or breakdown.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the Boston Globe by Jeremy Yudkin.

Amid this high level of acting skill, musician Kate Lindsay, word used in a sentence from the Boston Globe by Jeremy Yudkin.

Amid this high level of acting skill, musician Kate Lindsay stood out with her wonderfully convincing gestures and facial expressions, filling out the character of the more labile

younger sister with captivating verisimilitude.

We are confident that you won't slip up or err in learning today's word, despite its etymology.

Lebel was borrowed into English from French and can be traced back by way of the middle French

word, la bille, meaning prone to er, to the Latin verb, lebi, meaning to slip or fall. Indeed, the first sense

of labile in English was prone to slip er or lapse, but that use is now obsolete. Other

layby descendants in English include collapse, elapse, and prolapse, as well as the word lapse itself.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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