ductility

American  

[duhk-til-i-tee] / dʌkˈtɪl ɪ ti /

noun

1. the capacity to undergo a change of physical form without breaking; malleability or flexibility.

   High ductility and very low hardness made gold easy to work using primitive techniques.

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Other Word Forms

• nonductility
  noun

Etymology

Origin of ductility

ductil(e) ( def. ) + -ity ( def. )

Compare meaning

How does ductility compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• ductility vs. malleability

Explanation

Ductility is the quality of being pliable and flexible, like a piece of metal that can be bent into a thin wire. Metals like silver, lead, and copper have ductility — a metalsmith can bend, hammer, and even stretch these materials without breaking or shattering them. Things like Silly Putty and Play-Doh also have ductility, but your ceramic mug and plastic sunglasses don't. Ductility and the adjective ductile are rooted in the Latin ductilis, "able to be led or drawn."

Example Sentences

RidgeAlloy is made by remelting aluminum recovered from used products and recasting it into a new alloy designed to meet the strength, ductility and crash safety requirements of structural vehicle components.

From Science Daily • Mar. 10, 2026

But older brick buildings “don’t necessarily have a lot of ductility because they’re constructed from brittle materials,” she added, and lack reinforcement like steel that can help provide that flexibility.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 12, 2023

Toughness comes from a blend of high strength and ductility, and it varies depending on the details of a structure, even if the material itself doesn't change.

From Science Magazine • Dec. 11, 2019

Some of the properties of metals in general, such as their malleability and ductility, are largely due to having identical atoms arranged in a regular pattern.

From Textbooks • Feb. 14, 2019

Now is the time to arrest it, before our habits become indurated, and while our national character has that ductility which the changes our country is ever undergoing, naturally produces.

From The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 by Walsh, Robert