Resilience
rɪˈzɪliəns
Definitions
The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; the ability to spring back into shape.
rɪˈzɪliəns
The ability to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
The community showed remarkable resilience after the hurricane.
💡 Simply: Imagine you're building a tower of blocks. If the tower falls over, being resilient means you don't give up! You pick up the blocks and build again. It's about bouncing back from a challenge.
👶 For kids: Being able to bounce back after something bad happens, like when you fall down but then get right back up!
More Examples
Her resilience in the face of adversity was inspiring.
The material's resilience allowed it to withstand high impacts.
How It's Used
"Psychologists study human resilience in the face of trauma."
"Companies need resilience to navigate economic downturns."
"Ecosystems demonstrate resilience after natural disasters."
Idioms & expressions
have the resilience of...
To show a quality of resilience, similar to a quality exhibited by something or someone else.
"The team showed the resilience of a seasoned athlete."
From Latin *resilire* ('to jump back, recoil'), related to *salire* ('to leap'). Initially used in physics to describe the ability of a material to recover its shape after being deformed; later extended to human traits.
The term's early usage was primarily in physics. The application to human characteristics and social systems developed later, reflecting a shift towards understanding adaptability and coping mechanisms.
Memory tip
Think of a rubber band: it can be stretched, but it returns to its original form. That's resilience.