What does resiliency mean?
Resiliency means the capacity to recover, adapt, or continue functioning after difficulty or change. It describes people and communities that withstand setbacks, as well as materials and systems that can spring back after being disturbed. The word often carries a positive connotation when applied to people or organizations, suggesting endurance, flexibility, and an ability to learn from adversity. In technical contexts, it can refer more specifically to the ability of a structure or material to return to its original shape after stress. Resiliency is related to resilience and resilient, but it is somewhat less common in everyday English than resilience. It is especially useful when discussing community recovery, organizational continuity, physical performance, and the behavior of engineered systems under stress.
nounThe capacity to recover quickly after difficulty, stress, or change; also, the ability of a material or system to return to its original form after being disturbed.
- The capacity to recover quickly after difficulty, stress, or change.
- The ability of a material or system to return to its original form after being disturbed.
"The community showed remarkable resiliency in the face of the disruption."
"Her resiliency helped her return to competition after a serious injury."
"The bridge was tested for resiliency under extreme temperature changes."
The plural is formed by adding -ies; it is used when discussing different people, communities, systems, or examples of resilience.
"The study compares the resiliencies of several local economies."
Resiliency is what allows a system to absorb a shock and still function: the useful bridge between surviving a setback and emerging stronger from it.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of resiliency
Resiliency ultimately comes through Latin resilire, meaning “to leap back” or “to withdraw,” from re-, meaning “back,” and salire, meaning “to leap.” The English adjective resilient and the related noun resilience developed from this same Latin foundation. Resiliency is an English derivation in the -y form and became especially associated with ideas of toughness, recovery, and adaptation.
Related word forms
How resiliency is actually used
Resiliency is especially common in formal, technical, and institutional contexts. In general English, resilience is usually the more frequent and natural noun, while resilient is the standard adjective.
Easily confused with resiliency
Resiliency is the noun naming the capacity to recover or withstand stress, while resilient is the adjective describing a person, material, or system that has that capacity.