stable

English

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈsteɪ.bəl/
  • Rhymes: -eɪbəl

Etymology 1

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French estable, either from Latin stabulum (“stall, stand”) or from Latin stabilis (itself from stare (“stand”) + -abilis (“able”)).

Noun

stable (plural stables)

  1. A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) animals with hoofs, especially horses.
    There were stalls for fourteen horses in the squire's stables.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:
      We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.
  2. (metonymically) All the racehorses of a particular stable, i.e. belonging to a given owner.
  3. (Scotland) A set of advocates; a barristers' chambers.
  4. An organization of sumo wrestlers who live and train together.
Synonyms
  • (sumo organization): heya
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

stable (third-person singular simple present stables, present participle stabling, simple past and past participle stabled)

  1. (transitive) to put or keep (horse) in a stable.
  2. (rail transport, transitive) to park (a rail vehicle)
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Latin stabilis (itself from stare (“stand”) + -abilis (“able”))

Adjective

stable (comparative more stable, superlative most stable)

  1. Relatively unchanging, permanent; firmly fixed or established; consistent; not easily moved, altered, or destroyed.
    He was in a stable relationship.
    a stable government
    • Rogers
      In this region of chance, […] where nothing is stable.
  2. (computing) Of software: established to be relatively free of bugs, as opposed to a beta version.
    You should download the 1.9 version of that video editing software: it is the latest stable version. The newer beta version has some bugs.
  3. (computer science, of a sorting algorithm) That maintains the relative order of items that compare as equal.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Translations

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin stabilis. Replaced Middle French, Old French estable, an earlier borrowing from the same Latin source.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /stabl/
  • Audio(file)

Adjective

stable (plural stables)

  1. stable (relatively unchanging)

Antonyms

Further reading

Anagrams

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