flexibility.

1. The ability of a material or structure to bend or change shape without readily breaking.

2. The ability or willingness to modify arrangements, behavior or thinking to suit different circumstances.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• material flexibility
• flexibility of a joint

On the page

The material’s flexibility allowed the cover to bend around the curved frame.

Increasing the joint’s flexibility changed its motion without necessarily increasing its strength.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: definition, comparison, qualification, causal analysis. Disciplines: academic writing, institutional analysis, general research. Commonness: common.