Resilience
ri-ZIL-yuns
/rɪˈzɪliəns/
The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
Implies not just surviving, but adapting and often growing stronger after adversity. It's an active process, not just passive endurance.
The story behind the word. "Resilience" comes from the Latin verb "resilire," meaning "to leap back" or "to rebound." It entered English in the 17th century, initially referring to the physical property of materials to spring back into shape. By the mid-19th century, its figurative sense, referring to a person's ability to recover from adversity, became widely used.
Word relationships
- fortitude: Courage in pain or adversity, often implying moral strength.
- adaptability: The quality of being able to adjust to new conditions.
- fragility: The quality of being easily broken or damaged.
- vulnerability: The state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed.
Commonly confused with
- endurance: Endurance is the ability to withstand hardship over time; resilience is the ability to bounce back after hardship.
Word family
- resilient (adjective): able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.
Collocations
- emotional resilience
- mental resilience
- remarkable resilience
- build resilience
- foster resilience
Example sentences
- "The community showed remarkable resilience in rebuilding their homes after the devastating hurricane." Praising a community's strength.
- "Developing emotional resilience is key to navigating life's inevitable challenges." From a psychological study.
Memory hook
Think of a "RE-SIL-yuns" (re-silly-ants) that keeps bouncing back no matter how many times you try to step on it. Bounce back.
When not to use
For simple recovery from minor setbacks; it suggests overcoming significant challenges.
Fun facts
- In engineering, resilience refers to the amount of energy per unit volume that a material can absorb without permanent deformation.
Related words
Also appears in
- Business → Work-Life Balance
- Business → Professional Development
- Technology → Ecology & Climate Science
- Psychology → Psychological Resilience & Coping
- Philosophy → Stoic & Classical Philosophy
- Engineering & Industrial Design → Civil Infrastructure
- Engineering & Industrial Design → Supply Chain Engineering
- Engineering & Industrial Design → Biomimicry in Design
- Environmental Policy & Sustainability Economics → Sustainable Agriculture & Farming
- Environmental Policy & Sustainability Economics → Disaster Mitigation & Resilience
- Health Sciences → Mental Health & Well-being
- Psychology → Child & Adolescent Development
- Psychology → Trauma & Coping Mechanisms
- Sports, Athletics & Recreation → Combat Sports & Martial Arts
Take your vocabulary further with LangBlitz
Our English vocabulary app: FSRS spaced repetition, 5,000+ curated words across 119 topic groups, CEFR A1 to C2. Explore your mastery with the beautiful Vocabulary World feature.