What does hardiness mean?
Hardiness means the strength to endure difficult circumstances without being overwhelmed or damaged. In general use, it describes a person who faces hardship, danger, or prolonged discomfort with resilience and composure. The word can also be applied to animals, materials, and machines, though it is particularly common in horticulture, where plant hardiness refers to a plant’s ability to survive unsuitable weather and other environmental stresses. Hardiness is more than simple toughness: it implies an ability to withstand pressure and continue functioning. The word is usually neutral or formal, but it often carries a slightly admiring tone when used of people or living things. It is also useful in discussions of agriculture, gardening, biology, and survival, where naming the quality of withstanding adversity can be more precise than saying merely that something is “strong.”
nounThe capacity to withstand difficult conditions, hardship, or stress. In horticulture, it refers to a plant’s ability to survive unfavorable environmental conditions such as cold, drought, or poor soil.
- The capacity to endure hardship, difficult conditions, or stress.
- The ability of a plant or organism to survive unfavorable environmental conditions.
"The hardiness of the native grasses allowed them to survive the harsh winter."
"Her hardiness helped her through months of difficult travel."
"Gardeners choose varieties according to their hardiness and resistance to disease."
The plural is grammatical but uncommon; hardiness is usually used as an uncountable noun.
"The study compared the hardinesses of several varieties of grass."
The same quality that describes a hardy person can describe a plant that survives a brutal winter.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does hardiness come from?
Hardiness comes from Middle English hardinesse, formed from hard and the suffix -ness. Its sense developed from qualities associated with being hard or hardy, including toughness and the ability to endure difficulty. Related words such as hardship, hardy, and hardly share the same Germanic and Middle English heritage, although hardy was influenced by Old French hardi. Modern plant and animal uses developed from the general sense of endurance and resistance to adverse conditions.
How hardiness is actually used
Hardiness is formal or neutral and is often used for people, animals, plants, and materials. In gardening and agriculture, it is especially common as a technical term describing a plant’s tolerance of cold, heat, drought, wind, or other stresses. It is usually an abstract noun and is more commonly used uncountably than in the plural.