resilience
Americannoun
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the power or ability of a material to return to its original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched; elasticity.
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the ability of a person to adjust to or recover readily from illness, adversity, major life changes, etc.; buoyancy.
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the ability of a system or organization to respond to or recover readily from a crisis, disruptive process, etc..
Cities can build resilience to climate change by investing in infrastructure.
noun
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Also: resiliency. the state or quality of being resilient
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ecology the ability of an ecosystem to return to its original state after being disturbed
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physics the amount of potential energy stored in an elastic material when deformed
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of resilience
First recorded in 1620–30; see resili(ent) + -ence
Explanation
Truly, your resilience, or ability to bounce back, is not just admirable, but foolhardy, some might say; who else could have survived an attack by a rabid toucan and then gone on to become a world-renowned bird breeder? The noun resilience stems from the Latin resiliens, “to rebound, recoil.” As a character trait, resilience is a person’s ability to recover quickly from unfortunate circumstances or illness. Runners who fall during a marathon only to pop back up and dash through the finish line show some serious resilience. Or Silly Putty that can stretch and stretch without breaking, and then come back to rest inside its egg-shaped carrying case — that’s resilience, or elasticity, for you.
Vocabulary lists containing resilience
List 3
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Hamilton
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Power Prefix: re-
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the government's cohesion strategy published in April, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that social cohesion was "a vital front in the resilience of our national security".
From BBC • Jun. 10, 2026
Climate resilience is a reason why Krull owns the $513 million Vert Global Sustainable Real Estate ETF.
From Barron's • Jun. 10, 2026
But it only made No. 110 in the ranking, weighed down by lower scores on AI readiness, talent readiness and resilience that lessened the impact of good scores on innovation and financial fitness.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026
These corporations were compared to each other across six different categories—AI readiness, innovation, talent readiness, financial fitness, resilience and agility—and scored on a 0-100 scale, with 50 as the mean.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026
But what America got that night was a moment of release, a chance to feel its own resilience.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
