plasticity

[pla-stis-i-tee]

See more synonyms for plasticity on Thesaurus.com

noun

the quality or state of being plastic.
the capability of being molded, receiving shape, or being made to assume a desired form: the plasticity of social institutions; the great plasticity of clay.

Origin of plasticity

First recorded in 1775–85; plastic + -ity

Related formsnon·plas·tic·i·ty, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for plasticity

flexibility, mobility, resilience, elasticity, malleability

Examples from the Web for plasticity

Historical Examples of plasticity

Plasticity: the capacity for being formed, moulded or developed.
Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology
John. B. Smith
Every nerve centre must be prepared to express any adumbration of plasticity.
The Merry-Go-Round
Carl Van Vechten
The other quality we are to look for in the soul is mouldableness, plasticity.
Natural Law in the Spiritual World
Henry Drummond
They are two in number, the capacity for life and plasticity.
Natural Law in the Spiritual World
Henry Drummond
Have you the ideals of youth, the plasticity, the hopes, the illusions?
Black Oxen
Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

British Dictionary definitions for plasticity

plasticity

noun

the quality of being plastic or able to be moulded
(in pictorial art) the quality of depicting space and form so that they appear three-dimensional

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 plasticity

1782, from plastic + -ity.