Meaning & use
flexibility
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
The ability of a body or material to bend easily without breaking.
Grammar: Uncountable: good flexibility, not a flexibility.
Patterns
- flexibility in something
Yoga improves flexibility in the back and hips.
The cable has enough flexibility to fit around the corner.
Gymnasts train for years to build flexibility.
noununcountable
Willingness or ability to change plans or adapt to new circumstances.
Grammar: Uncountable: flexibility in working hours.
Patterns
- flexibility in something
- flexibility to do something
The job offers flexibility in working hours.
Our schedule has some flexibility if you need to change the date.
Good managers show flexibility when plans fail.
noununcountable
The quality of being able to be used in many different ways.
Grammar: Often used about tools, systems or software.
Patterns
- the flexibility of something
I like the flexibility of this software.
The room's flexibility lets it serve as an office or a gym.
The flexibility of the design makes it useful in many settings.
Common combinations
- show flexibility
- Both sides must show flexibility to reach a deal.
- offer flexibility
- The ticket offers flexibility if your plans change.
- work flexibility
- Remote work flexibility helps parents.
- physical flexibility
- Physical flexibility declines with age if you do not stretch.
- need flexibility
- Small businesses need flexibility to adapt.
Synonyms and how they differ
- adaptability
- Adaptability stresses coping with new conditions, while flexibility also covers bending physically.
- elasticity
- Elasticity means the ability to stretch and return to the original shape, which is narrower.
- versatility
- Versatility means being useful in many ways, often of people or tools.
- pliability
- Pliability is a less common word for something that bends easily.
Opposites
Word family
- flexible adjective
- able to bend or change easily
- flexibly adverb
- in an adaptable way
- inflexible adjective
- unwilling or unable to change
- flex verb
- to bend or tighten a muscle
Commonly confused: flexibility or flexibility? flexibility or elasticity?
flexibility vs flexibility
Do not confuse it with flexible, the adjective, as in a flexible schedule.
flexibility vs elasticity
Elasticity is about stretching and snapping back, while flexibility is about bending or adapting.
Practice
Our employer gives us a lot of ___ in choosing when we start and finish work.
Choose one answer.
After a lot of, a noun is needed, and flexibility is the noun. Flexible is an adjective, flexibly an adverb and flex a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “flexibility”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.