Standard Lemma guide

resilience

noun · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada, General-American: /ɹɪˈzɪl.jəns/
  • Canada, General-American: /ɹɪˈzɪl.i.əns/
  • Canada, General-American: /ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/
  • New-Jersey: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Midwestern-US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australian: /ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/
  • CMU ARPABET: R IH0 Z IH1 L IY0 AH0 N S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  • CMU ARPABET 2: R IH0 Z IH1 L Y AH0 N S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The mental ability to recover quickly from depression, illness or misfortune.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: human-sciences, medicine, neuroscience, psychology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The physical property of material that can resume its shape after being stretched or deformed; elasticity.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: give

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

The positive capacity of an organizational system or company to adapt and return to equilibrium after a crisis, failure or any kind of disruption, including: an outage, natural disasters, man-made disasters, terrorism, or similar (particularly IT systems, archives).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: fragility, brittleness

4

noun

Meaning 4

The capacity to resist destruction or defeat, especially when under extreme pressure.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Qualifier: literal or figurative

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: fragility, brittleness

5

noun

Meaning 5

the physical property of a material that can return to its original shape or position after deformation that does not exceed its elastic limit

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: resiliency

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: elasticity, snap

6

noun

Meaning 6

an occurrence of rebounding or springing back

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: resiliency

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: recoil, repercussion, rebound, backlash

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wre- Latin re- Proto-Indo-European *sel- Proto-Indo-European *-yétor Proto-Indo-European *sl̥yétor Proto-Italic *saljō?? Latin saliō Latin resiliō English -ence English resilience From Latin resiliō (“to spring back”) + English -ence.

Across languages

Translations

85 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: veerkragtigheid — mental ability
  • Catalan: resiliència — mental ability
  • Chinese Mandarin: 弹性 (tánxìng) — mental ability
  • Chinese Mandarin: 韧性 (rènxìng) — mental ability
  • Danish: modstandsdygtighed — mental ability
  • Dutch: veerkracht — mental ability
  • Dutch: herstellingsvermogen — mental ability
  • Finnish: toipumiskyky — mental ability
  • Finnish: lannistumattomuus — mental ability
  • Finnish: sitkeys — mental ability
  • Finnish: resilienssi — mental ability
  • French: résilience — mental ability
  • German: Resilienz — mental ability
  • German: Belastbarkeit — mental ability
  • German: Widerstandsfähigkeit — mental ability
  • Greek: ψυχολογική αντοχή (psychologikí antochí) — mental ability
  • Greek: ανθεκτικότητα (anthektikótita) — mental ability
  • Hungarian: ellenálló képesség — mental ability
  • Hungarian: stressztűrő képesség — mental ability
  • Indonesian: resiliensi — mental ability
  • Indonesian: daya pulih — mental ability
  • Indonesian: daya bingkas — mental ability
  • Italian: resilienza — mental ability
  • Navajo: tʼáá ałtsoní bichʼįʼ haʼahóní — mental ability
  • Norwegian: motstandsdyktighet — mental ability
  • Polish: odporność — mental ability
  • Portuguese: resiliência — mental ability
  • Russian: психологи́ческая усто́йчивость (psixologíčeskaja ustójčivostʹ) — mental ability
  • Spanish: resiliencia — mental ability
  • Tagalog: manhid — mental ability
  • Turkish: çabuk iyileşme özelliği — mental ability
  • Afrikaans: veerkragtigheid — physical property of material
  • Bulgarian: гъвкавост (gǎvkavost) — physical property of material
  • Bulgarian: еластичност (elastičnost) — physical property of material
  • Catalan: resiliència — physical property of material
  • Dutch: veerkracht — physical property of material
  • Finnish: palautuvuus — physical property of material
  • Finnish: kimmoisuus — physical property of material
  • Finnish: elastisuus — physical property of material
  • French: résilience — physical property of material
  • Galician: resiliencia — physical property of material
  • German: Elastizität — physical property of material
  • German: elastisches Verformungsarbeitsaufnahmevermögen — physical property of material
  • Greek: επανατακτικότητα (epanataktikótita) — physical property of material
  • Greek: επαναπροσαρμοστικότητα (epanaprosarmostikótita) — physical property of material
  • Greek: ελαστικότητα (elastikótita) — physical property of material
  • Hungarian: stressztűrés — physical property of material
  • Hungarian: rugalmasság — physical property of material
  • Indonesian: daya lenting — physical property of material
  • Italian: resilienza — physical property of material
  • Italian: elasticità — physical property of material
  • Korean: 탄성 (tanseong) — physical property of material
  • Polish: sprężystość — physical property of material
  • Portuguese: resiliência — physical property of material
  • Romanian: reziliență — physical property of material
  • Russian: упру́гость (uprúgostʹ) — physical property of material
  • Russian: ги́бкость (gíbkostʹ) — physical property of material
  • Russian: эласти́чность (elastíčnostʹ) — physical property of material
  • Spanish: resiliencia — physical property of material
  • Spanish: elasticidad — physical property of material
  • Swedish: elasticitet — physical property of material
  • Thai: สภาพยืดหยุ่น (sà-pâap-yʉ̂ʉt-yùn) — physical property of material
  • Turkish: elastikiyet — physical property of material
  • Turkish: elastiklik — physical property of material
  • Turkish: rezilyans — physical property of material
  • Turkish: yaylanma — physical property of material
  • Turkish: dayanıklılık — physical property of material
  • Afrikaans: veerkragtigheid — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Arabic: القدرة على التعافي بعد الصدمة — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Catalan: resiliència — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Dutch: veerkracht — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Finnish: toipumiskyky — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Finnish: resilienssi — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Galician: resiliencia — ability of a system or company to recover
  • German: Resilienz — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Greek: ανακαμψιμότητα (anakampsimótita) — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Hungarian: stressztűrés — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Hungarian: terhelhetőség — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Italian: determinazione — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Italian: tenacia — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Polish: odporność — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Russian: усто́йчивость (ustójčivostʹ) — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Russian: запа́с про́чности (zapás próčnosti) — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Ukrainian: сті́йкість (stíjkistʹ) — ability of a system or company to recover
  • Vietnamese: tính chống chịu — ability of a system or company to recover
Real reading context

resilience in complete knowledge articles