ductile

From Old French, from Latin ductilis (“easily led”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdʌk.taɪl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdʌk.təl/, /ˈdʌk.taɪl/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -ʌktaɪl

ductile (comparative more ductile, superlative most ductile)

1. Capable of being pulled or stretched into thin wire by mechanical force without breaking.

   ductile material

   ductile shape

   ductile alloy

   ductile state

   Gold is highly ductile, allowing it to be drawn into very fine wires.

   The ductile nature of copper makes it essential in electrical wiring.

2. Molded easily into a new form.
   • 1871, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Coming Race, Chapter VII:

     their organisation was, by hereditary culture, much more ductile and more readily capable of acquiring knowledge than mine.

3. (rare) Led easily; prone to follow.

• (molded easily): flexible, plastic, pliant; see also Thesaurus:moldable
• (led easily): tractable

• (antonym(s) of “capable of being pulled into thin wire”): brittle

• malleable

• duct
• ductility

• elastic

• dulcite

Learned borrowing from Latin ductilis.

• IPA^(key): /dyk.til/

• Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)):

  (file)

ductile (plural ductiles)

1. ductile (capable of being pulled or stretched into thin wire)

• ductilité

• “ductile”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• dulcite

ductile

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of ductilis

• "ductile", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)