The HSAB concept is an acronym for 'hard and soft (Lewis) acids and bases. Also known as the Pearson acid base concept, HSAB is widely used in chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 for explaining stability of compounds

Chemical compound

A chemical compound is a pure chemical substance consisting of two or more different chemical elements that can be separated into simpler substances by chemical reactions. Chemical compounds have a unique and defined chemical structure; they consist of a fixed ratio of atoms that are held together...

, reaction

Chemical reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Chemical reactions can be either spontaneous, requiring no input of energy, or non-spontaneous, typically following the input of some type of energy, such as heat, light or electricity...

 mechanisms and pathways.
It assigns the terms 'hard' or 'soft', and 'acid' or 'base' to chemical species

Chemical species

Chemical species are atoms, molecules, molecular fragments, ions, etc., being subjected to a chemical process or to a measurement. Generally, a chemical species can be defined as an ensemble of chemically identical molecular entities that can explore the same set of molecular energy levels on a...

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'Hard' applies to species which are small, have high charge states (the charge criterion applies mainly to acids, to a lesser extent to bases), and are weakly polarizable.
'Soft' applies to species which are big, have low charge states and are strongly polarizable.

The theory is used in contexts where a qualitative, rather than quantitative description would help in understanding the predominant factors which drive chemical properties and reactions.