RESILIENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does resilient mean? 

• RESILIENT (adjective)
  The adjective RESILIENT has 2 senses:

1. recovering readily from adversity, depression, or the like

2. elastic; rebounds readily

  Familiarity information: RESILIENT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RESILIENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Recovering readily from adversity, depression, or the like

Similar:

spirited (displaying animation, vigor, or liveliness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Elastic; rebounds readily

Synonyms:

bouncy; live; lively; resilient; springy

Context example:

springy turf

Similar:

elastic (capable of resuming original shape after stretching or compression; springy)

Derivation:

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

resile (spring back; spring away from an impact)

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

resilience (an occurrence of rebounding or springing back)

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

resiliency (an occurrence of rebounding or springing back)

 Context examples 

As well as fighting disease and injury in humans, scientists could harness this technique to control plant cells and reverse environmental and agricultural issues, making plants more resilient to disease and pests.

(Cells Programmed Like Computers to Fight Disease, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This is particularly significant in times of global warming, where there is an urgent need to breed more resilient crops.

(Harnessing tomato jumping genes could help speed-breed drought-resistant crops, University of Cambridge)

Research has identified brain patterns in humans that appear to underlie resilient coping, the healthy emotional and behavioral responses to stress that help some people handle stressful situations better than others.

(Researchers identify brain circuits that help people cope with stress, NIH)

The researchers hypothesized that, in resilient animals, runaway excitatory currents trigger a boost in inhibitory currents, resulting in normal mood-related behaviors.

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

The results indicate that termite mounds could make these areas more resilient to climate change.

(Dirt mounds made by termites in Africa, South America, Asia could prevent spread of deserts, NSF)

"Understanding how marshes might become more resilient has major implications for understanding coastal response to sea level rise."

(High carbon dioxide can create 'shrinking stems' in marshes, National Science Foundation)

"Carbon nanotubes are highly resilient," Hersam says.

(Materials for the next generation of electronics and photovoltaics, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

We also want to find out whether cells that have experienced one round of anastasis are more or less resilient to a subsequent round.

(Cells Back from Brink of Death, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Traditionally, we have viewed salt marshes as resilient to nitrogen pollution, because the microbes there remove much of the nitrogen as gas, writes first author Ashley Bulseco, a postdoctoral scientist at the MBL.

(Salt marshes' capacity to store carbon may be threatened by nitrogen pollution, National Science Foundation)

The blaze of tropic suns was in his face, and in his swelling, resilient muscles was the primordial vigor of life.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)