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plasticity

[pla-stis-i-tee]
See more synonyms for plasticity on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the quality or state of being plastic.
  2. 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.
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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

flexibilitymobilityresilienceelasticitymalleability

Examples from the Web for plasticity

Historical Examples

  • 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

  • They are two in number, the capacity for life and plasticity.

  • The other quality we are to look for in the soul is mouldableness, plasticity.

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

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper