facility

[fuh-sil-i-tee]

noun, plural fa·cil·i·ties.

Often facilities.

something designed, built, installed, etc., to serve a specific function affording a convenience or service: transportation facilities; educational facilities; a new research facility.
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.

readiness or ease due to skill, aptitude, or practice; dexterity: to compose with great facility.

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

an easy-flowing manner: facility of style.

the quality of being easily or conveniently done or performed.

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

freedom from difficulty, controversy, misunderstanding, etc.: facility of understanding.

Origin of facility

1375–1425; late Middle English facilite (< Middle French) < Latin facilitās. See facile, -ity

Related formsnon·fa·cil·i·ty, noun, plural non·fa·cil·i·ties.o·ver·fa·cil·i·ty, noun

Can be confusedfacile facilitate facility felicitate

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for facility's

facility

noun plural -ties

ease of action or performance; freedom from difficulty

ready skill or ease deriving from practice or familiarity

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

rare easy-going disposition

military an organization or building offering supporting capability

(usually plural) a euphemistic word for lavatory

Word Origin for facility

C15: from Latin facilitās, from facilis easy; see facile

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for facility's

facility

early 15c., "gentleness," from Middle French facilité, from Latin facilitatem (nominative facilitas) "easiness, ease, fluency, willingness," from facilis "easy" (see facile). Its sense in English moved from "genteelness" to "opportunity" (1510s), to "aptitude, ease" (1530s). Meaning "place for doing something," which makes the word so beloved of journalists and fuzzy writers, first recorded 1872.