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facility

[fuh-sil-i-tee]
noun, plural fa·cil·i·ties.
  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. Often facilities. Informal. a rest room, 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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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. 2018
British Dictionary definitions for facility's

facility

noun plural -ties
  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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Word Origin

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

n.

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.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper