flexibility
nounUS, UK /ˌflɛksɪˈbɪlɪti/
Etymology From French flexibilité, from Late Latin flexibilitās, from Latin flectō (“to bend, curve”). Equivalent to flexible + -ity = flex + -ibility.
1
The quality of being flexible, whether physically or metaphorically.
- Researchers have developed a new gel they say is as durable as metal, has the flexibility of jello, and could revolutionize how our bodies heal and age.2017 July 16, Jenny Marc, Katy Scott, “Revolutionary gel is five times stronger than steel”, in CNN, archived from the original on 02 Jul 2025:
- Whether redundancies come and whether they result in industrial action remains to be seen, but it's clear that the RMT is not prepared to show any flexibility towards rail companies.2020 December 2, Philip Haigh, “A winter of discontent caused by threat of union action”, in Rail, page 63:
2
The quality of having options.
- I had some flexibility in terms of whether to stay in a hotel or in a bed-and-breakfast.
- For millions of people like Poteat, pandemic-era telehealth flexibilities have made health care much more accessible. […] “What the flexibility of telehealth allows during Covid was to shift gears extraordinarily rapidly,” said Dr. Shawn Ryan, a regional director of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.2022 April 29, Tasnim Ahmed, “Back to the doctor’s office? Here’s what’s next for telehealth after the pandemic”, in CNN, archived from the original on 07 May 2022:
- Derived terms
- flexicurity, heteroflexibility, homoflexibility, hyperflexibility, labour market flexibility, low temperature flexibility, neuroflexibility, semiflexibility, ultraflexibility, waxy flexibility
- Related terms
- flex