The act of making something steady, or the state of having become steady — the noun that goes with the verb stabilize. It is used where something was moving, falling, shaking or changing in a worrying way, and then stopped doing that. Money people talk about the stabilization of prices or of a currency; doctors talk about the stabilization of a patient, meaning the person is no longer getting worse (note: that does not mean better — it means the fall has stopped); engineers talk about the stabilization of a wall, a boat, or a video image; politicians talk about the stabilization of a country after fighting. It is a formal word. It lives in news reports, medical notes, business writing and government papers, almost never in a chat with a friend — in speech people say "things settled down" or "he's stable now". British writing often spells it stabilisation, with an s; American writing uses the z. Both are correct, so pick one and stay with it. You will also meet it as a describing word in front of another noun: a stabilization programme, stabilization fund, image stabilization.