pliancy

Other forms: pliancies

Pliancy is a flexible quality. You can talk about the physical pliancy of your yoga teacher, or the mental pliancy of a national spelling bee winner.

Use pliancy to talk about either kind of adaptability — mental or physical. If you're able to adapt to different groups of people easily, adjusting your conversation to fit each situation, that's one kind of pliancy. If you've ever bent a rubbery doll into various complicated poses, that's another type of pliancy. The root of the word is the Old French ploiant, which means "bending and supple," but also "compliant and fickle." In the thirteenth century pliant even meant "turncoat" or "traitor."

Definitions of pliancy

1. noun

   adaptability of mind or character
   synonyms: malleability, pliability, pliantness, suppleness

   type of:

   adaptability

   the ability to change (or be changed) to fit changed circumstances
2. noun

   the property of being pliant and flexible
   synonyms: pliantness, suppleness

   type of:

   bendability, pliability

   the property of being easily bent without breaking