transient vs unstable

transient

adj
  • Intermediate. 

  • Occasional; isolated; one-off 

  • having a positive probability of being left and never being visited again. 

  • Passing or disappearing with time; transitory. 

  • Decaying with time, especially exponentially. 

  • Operating beyond itself; having an external effect. 

  • Passing through; passing from one person to another. 

  • Remaining for only a brief time. 

noun
  • A relatively loud, non-repeating signal in an audio waveform that occurs very quickly, such as the attack of a snare drum. 

  • A homeless person. 

  • homestay 

  • A transient phenomenon, especially an electric current; a very brief surge. 

  • A module that generally remains in memory only for a short time. 

  • Something that is transient. 

  • A person who passes through a place for a short time; a traveller; a migrant worker. 

unstable

adj
  • Fickle. 

  • Readily decomposable. 

  • Not stable. 

  • Radioactive, especially with a short half-life. 

  • Unpredictable. 

  • Having a strong tendency to change. 

  • Fluctuating; not constant. 

verb
  • To release (an animal) from a stable. 

How often have the words transient and unstable occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )