facility

American  

[fuh-sil-i-tee] / fəˈsɪl ɪ ti /

noun

• facilities
  plural

1. Often facilities

   1. something designed, built, installed, etc., to serve a specific function affording a convenience or service.

      transportation facilities;

      educational facilities;

      a new research facility.

   2. something that permits the easier performance of an action, course of conduct, etc..

      to provide someone with every facility for accomplishing a task;

      to lack facilities for handling bulk mail.

2. readiness or ease due to skill, aptitude, or practice; dexterity.

   to compose with great facility.

3. ready compliance.

   Her facility in organizing and directing made her an excellent supervisor.

4. an easy-flowing manner.

   facility of style.

5. the quality of being easily or conveniently done or performed.

6. Informal. Often facilities a restroom, especially one for use by the public, as in a theater or restaurant.

7. freedom from difficulty, controversy, misunderstanding, etc..

   facility of understanding.

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facility British  

/ fəˈsɪlɪtɪ /

noun

1. ease of action or performance; freedom from difficulty

2. ready skill or ease deriving from practice or familiarity

3. (often plural) the means or equipment facilitating the performance of an action

4. rare easy-going disposition

5. military an organization or building offering supporting capability

6. (usually plural) a euphemistic word for lavatory

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonfacility
  noun
• overfacility
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• facilities
  plural

Etymology

Origin of facility

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English facilite, from Middle French or directly from Latin facilitās; see facile, -ity

Explanation

Facility is a noun with several different meanings. Often, as in "storage facility," it's a place designed for a specific use, but it can also mean an effortlessness or ease with something. The new stadium is a great facility for showing off Olympic winter sports. At this level, all of the ice skaters show a facility that borders on magical. Likewise, the prison is a great facility for storing prisoners. Those prisoners showed a real facility for crime. Related to the French facile, which means "easy," a person who shows a facility for something makes it seem easy. This is cool, especially if that thing is difficult — or, as the French might say, difficile.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

facility facilities

The only option to build the facility was to demolish the Trojans’ longtime baseball field and displace the program for multiple seasons.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

A bigger facility, at 9.2 gigawatts, is planned in Ohio under a public-private partnership involving SoftBank.

From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026

No public meetings or votes took place before a lone city staffer gave the company the green light last July to build the 438,500-square-foot facility on 56 acres of farmland.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

An FBI criminal complaint said he had freely admitted his involvement when he was questioned by a police officer in a Libyan detention facility in 2012.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026

I haven’t touched snow since the first time my mom shipped me off to a top-of-the-line treatment facility to be a guinea pig for an experimental drug to fight B. cepacia.

From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott

On Kinhan's return to Ireland, RTÉ have said that a large security operation will be in place and the prison service has also upgraded facilities in the maximum-security Portlaoise Prison.

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

These facilities require enormous amounts of power not only to operate their computing equipment, but also to keep it cool.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026

Here, “Maddie’s Secret” fully diverges from its semi-parodic path, following Maddie to treatment, which, like many people who end up in mandatory care facilities, she doesn’t take seriously, believing she knows her body best.

From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026

Now the Chinese manufacturers are establishing local research-and-development centers and production facilities that should allow them to produce higher-value products, Brzoska said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

“There’s no privacy. No proper toilets or kitchens. No facilities for a growing family.”

From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell

Related Words

• accommodation
• amenity
• equipment
• material
• resource
• tool