friabile

Friabile is an adjective used to describe materials that are easily crumbled, powdered, or broken into fragments with little applied force. In English, the standard form is friable; friabile is the Italian form and appears in some multilingual technical writing or dictionaries. The term derives from Latin friabilis, meaning easily broken.

In geology and materials science, friable describes rocks or soils with low cohesion that break apart readily under mechanical stress. Friable rocks may disintegrate into small fragments when struck or weathered, and friable soils can be easily crumbled by hand or by slight pressure, often leading to rapid erosion or transport of sediments. Chalk, weathered clay, and certain sedimentary units are commonly cited as friable examples.

In medicine and pathology, friable refers to tissues or mucous membranes that are delicate and prone to tearing or bleeding when touched or manipulated. Friable tissue can be associated with inflammatory or ischemic conditions, neoplasia, or ulceration, and it informs clinical handling and surgical planning.

In pharmaceutical sciences, friability denotes the tendency of a tablet or pellet to crumble under mechanical stress. A friability test commonly uses a rotating drum or similar device to expose a sample to repeated agitation; the material’s weight loss is measured to assess physical stability during handling, packaging, and transport. Results depend on formulation, excipients, and processing.

See also: friability, which denotes the broader quality of being easily crumbled, and related terms in geology, medicine, and pharmacology.