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

This specifically remarkable as resistance to oxidation and ductility still cannot be predicted sufficiently to allow a targeted material design -- despite the great progress that has been achieved in computer-assisted materials development.

From Science Daily • Oct. 23, 2025

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

SpaceX said that compared with a traditionally cast part, the printed valve body had "superior strength, ductility and fracture resistance."

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2016

Tractil′ity, the quality of being tractile: ductility; Trac′tion, act of drawing or state of being drawn; Trac′tion-en′gine, a steam vehicle for hauling heavy weights along a road, &c.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various