The resilience meaning is the ability to recover from difficulty and return to a good state, whether that is a person after a loss, a material after being squeezed, or a city after a flood. Someone who loses a job, feels low for a while and then rebuilds is showing resilience.
The adjective is resilient. Both words are popular in schools, workplaces, health, engineering and planning, and each field uses them in a slightly different way. Resilience does not mean feeling no pain. It means coming back from it.
Entry at a glance
Meaning
Capacity to recover, adapt and spring back after stressPart of speech
Noun (resilient: adjective; resiliently: adverb)Pronunciation
re-ZIL-yuhns; resilient: re-ZIL-yuhntWord forms
resilient, resiliently, resiliency (a variant noun)Origin
Latin resilire, "to leap back"; in English from the 1620sOpposite
fragility, vulnerability, brittlenessClose words
toughness, grit, adaptability
Three senses of the word
- In people: the ability to cope with stress, loss or failure and recover. A resilient child adjusts after moving to a new school.
- In materials: the power of something to return to its shape after being bent, stretched or pressed. Rubber and memory foam are resilient.
- In systems: the ability of a business, network, economy or ecosystem to keep working during a shock and recover after it. Engineers talk about a resilient power grid; planners talk about flood resilience.
The common thread in all three is recovery after pressure, not avoiding pressure in the first place.
Resilience meaning in English, from leaping to coping
Its root is the Latin verb resilire, "to jump back, rebound", built from re- (back) and salire (to leap). It entered English in the 1620s meaning the act of springing back. By the early 1800s scientists used it for the elasticity of materials. The sense of a person bouncing back from hard times grew later and is now the most common use. Its cousin resilient appeared in the same century.
Resilient definition and how to use both words
The simplest definition of resilient: able to recover quickly from difficulty, or able to spring back into shape. You can be resilient to something (resilient to drought) or resilient in the face of something (resilient in the face of criticism).
Common pairings for the noun include build resilience, show resilience, emotional resilience, mental resilience, climate resilience and a test of resilience. The noun is usually uncountable.
Resilience or resiliency? Both are correct. Resilience is far more common; resiliency appears mostly in American writing and some technical fields.
Examples in sentences
- The farmers showed great resilience after two years of poor rain.
- Our team lead says resilience is a skill you can practise, like public speaking.
- This fabric is resilient, so it does not crease when you pack it.
- Hospitals are planning for resilience against power cuts.
- After failing the entrance exam, Arjun resiliently signed up to try again the next year.
Close words and the difference
| Word | Focus |
|---|---|
| Resilience | Recovering after a blow |
| Perseverance | Keeping going over a long effort |
| Tenacity | Gripping a goal and not letting go |
| Grit | Passion plus persistence toward long-term goals |
| Robust | Strong enough not to break in the first place |
A useful way to remember it: robust things resist the hit, while resilient things recover from it. The opposite of resilience is fragility or brittleness, and a person who struggles to recover may be described as vulnerable.
Where you meet it
In schools, resilience is taught as a life skill, often through lessons on handling mistakes. In health and counselling it describes how people cope with stress and trauma, and it is seen as something that grows with support, not a fixed trait. In business, supply chain resilience and operational resilience are common phrases. In science and planning it describes forests, coastlines and cities. Qualities like this are gathered on the character and mood words hub, alongside adversity.
Frequently asked questions
What is the meaning of resilience in simple words?
Resilience means being able to bounce back after something hard happens. It applies to people, objects and whole systems.
What is the meaning of resilient?
To define resilient briefly: it means able to recover quickly from trouble or return to shape after being bent. A resilient friend gets back on track after a setback.
What is the definition of resilience I could give in a job interview?
You might say resilience is staying effective under pressure and recovering well from setbacks. Then give a short real example of a problem you bounced back from.
Is resilience a skill or a trait?
Researchers mostly treat it as something that can grow. Support from others, healthy habits and practice in solving problems all help build it.
What is the opposite of resilient?
Common opposites are fragile, brittle and vulnerable. For materials, rigid or brittle often fits best.
Which spelling of resilience is right?
It is spelled r-e-s-i-l-i-e-n-c-e and said re-ZIL-yuhns, putting the weight on ZIL. A frequent misspelling is "resiliance".