pliancy

Tendency to bend

Pliancy is the quality of bending easily without breaking—flexibility of material or character.

A willow branch has pliancy; so does a person willing to adapt to circumstances.

The word can suggest admirable flexibility or, less favorably, a lack of firm principle: The committee valued her pliancy on procedural matters.

physical

flexibility

Ability to adapt easily

bendabilityCapacity to flex
supplenessCapacity to bend easily
elasticityTendency to resume original form

malleability · softness · give · springiness · resilience · limberness · stretch · yielding · rubber · willow

mental

adaptability

Ability to adjust readily

open-mindednessAcceptance of differing viewpoints
receptivenessWillingness to accept ideas
amenabilityReadiness to yield

willingness · teachability · impressionability · persuadability · accommodation · adjustment · flexibility · yielding · suggestibility · docility

social

obedience

Compliance with authority

submissivenessDisposition to obey others
deferenceYielding to another's judgment
acquiescenceUnresisting acceptance

conformity · tractability · docility · subservience · yielding · accommodation · agreeableness · biddability · meekness · manageability

Opposites

physical flexibility

pliancyrigidity

State of being unbending

stiffness · inflexibility · hardness · brittleness · firmness

mental/behavioral adaptability

pliancyrigidity

State of being unbending

inflexibility · stubbornness · obstinacy · intransigence · pigheadedness

susceptibility to influence

pliancydefiance

Open resistance to authority

resistance · recalcitrance · intractability · willfulness · rebelliousness

Family

compliance, pliant, compliant, noncompliance, pliantness, noncompliant, incompliant

Familiarity: Top 500,000
Profile: Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Everyday, not technical · Rated G