resilient

Resilient is an adjective describing the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or to withstand and adapt to challenging conditions. In everyday language it characterizes people, communities, systems, or objects that resist disruption and return to a functional state after stress.

In materials science, resilience describes a material's ability to absorb energy during elastic deformation and to recover its original shape when the load is removed. The term is closely related to elasticity and the modulus of resilience, a measure of the energy stored per unit volume up to the yield point.

In psychology, psychological resilience refers to an individual's capacity to cope with adversity, to recover from trauma, and to maintain or regain well-being. Protective factors include social support, adaptive coping strategies, and a sense of purpose.

In ecology and infrastructure, resilience describes the ability of an ecosystem or a system to absorb disturbances, adapt, and continue to function. Ecological resilience emphasizes feedbacks and thresholds; resilience engineering and resilient design focus on anticipation, monitoring, and rapid rebound of critical services after disruptions.

Originating from Latin resilire "to rebound" via Old French resiliere, the term entered English in the 17th century and has since developed a specialized vocabulary across disciplines.