RESILIENCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does resilience mean? 

• RESILIENCE (noun)
  The noun RESILIENCE has 2 senses:

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

2. an occurrence of rebounding or springing back

  Familiarity information: RESILIENCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RESILIENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

resilience; resiliency

Hypernyms ("resilience" is a kind of...):

elasticity; snap (the tendency of a body to return to its original shape after it has been stretched or compressed)

Derivation:

resile (return to the original position or state after being stretched or compressed)

resilient (elastic; rebounds readily)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An occurrence of rebounding or springing back

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

resilience; resiliency

Hypernyms ("resilience" is a kind of...):

backlash; rebound; recoil; repercussion (a movement back from an impact)

Derivation:

resile (return to the original position or state after being stretched or compressed)

resilient (elastic; rebounds readily)

 Context examples 

Inhibitory currents correct out-of-balance electrical activity and thus produce resilience.

(Self-tuning neurons promote resilience to stress, depression, NIH)

It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

At last he arose in a weary manner, as though all the resilience had gone out of his body, and proceeded to fasten the dogs to the sled.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

This work suggests that ‘remembering the good times’ may help build resilience to stress and reduce vulnerability to depression in young people.

(Recalling happy memories during adolescence can reduce risk of depression, University of Cambridge)

However, if both the population and price of walrus started to tumble, it must have badly undermined the resilience of the settlements, says co-author Dr Bastiaan Star of the University of Oslo.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)

Researchers studied the resilience of four species of coastal birds, including the endangered saltmarsh sparrow.

(Coastal birds can weather the storm, but not the sea, National Science Foundation)

The study also emphasized the impact of species' mobility on their resilience.

(Galapagos sea life study highlights importance of biodiversity in the face of climate change, National Science Foundation)

Scientists have discovered a new mechanism for determining how carbon is stored in soils, which could improve the climate resilience of crop systems and reduce their carbon footprints.

(Scientists discover new mechanism for how soils store carbon, National Science Foundation)

"The variability of the arrangement of the leaf area in the canopy can be important in terms of forest productivity as well as resilience to different types of disturbances and stressors."

(Structural complexity in forests improves carbon capture, National Science Foundation)

The resilience and strength of bone is due to the orderly mineralization of a specialized extracellular matrix (ECM) composed of type I collagen (90%) and a host of non-collagenous proteins that are, in general, also found in other tissues.

(Function of SLRP in Bone Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)