Learn the meaning and usage of the word volatile , which can be an adjective or a noun. Find out its origin, synonyms, example sentences, and related phrases and articles. Volatile definition: evaporating rapidly; passing off readily in the form of vapor.. See examples of VOLATILE used in a sentence. Watch out when a situation becomes volatile — it is likely to change for the worse suddenly. If you and your best friend have a volatile relationship, you frequently fight and make up. In such cases, the values that were visible to A before writing the volatile variable will be visible to B after reading the volatile variable: Technically, any write to a volatile field happens before every subsequent read of the same field. This is the volatile variable rule of the Java Memory Model (JMM).