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Meaning & use

agility

noun·Academic

Last updated

UK/əˈdʒɪləti/
US/əˈdʒɪləti/

Meanings

  1. noununcountable

    The ability to move your body quickly, lightly and with good balance.

    Grammar: Uncountable: she showed great agility; you do not say an agility.

    Patterns

    • agility in something
    • with agility

    The gymnast's agility on the beam amazed the judges.

    The cat jumped onto the shelf with remarkable agility.

    Football players train to build speed and agility.

  2. noununcountablefigurative

    The ability to think, adapt or respond to change quickly and cleverly.

    Grammar: Uncountable; often used with mental, strategic or business as modifiers: strategic agility.

    Patterns

    • agility in something
    • the agility to do something

    The debater answered every question with mental agility.

    Small firms often have the agility to change direction fast.

    Her political agility helped her survive three leadership contests.

Common combinations

great agility
The goalkeeper dived with great agility.
mental agility
Puzzles can help keep mental agility sharp as you age.
speed and agility
The sport rewards speed and agility.
agility training
Agility training uses cones and short sprints.
business agility
Business agility lets a company react to the market.

Synonyms and how they differ

nimbleness
Nimbleness stresses lightness of movement or thought, but agility is the more common and technical word.
dexterity
Dexterity refers mainly to skill with the hands, whereas agility concerns movement of the whole body.
flexibility
Flexibility is the ability to bend or adapt, but it does not need to be quick.
quickness
Quickness is only about speed, whereas agility adds control and balance.

Opposites

clumsinessstiffness

Word family

agile adjective
able to move or think quickly and easily
agilely adverb
in a quick and light way
agileness noun
the quality of being agile, less common than agility

Commonly confused: agility or ability?

agility vs ability

Ability is general skill of any kind, while agility is specifically quickness and ease of movement or thought.

Practice

The coach praised the young winger for her speed and ___ when changing direction.

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