flexible
adjective
Simple meaning
Capable of adapting or changing to suit new or modified conditions or situations.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
flehksuhbuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈflɛksəbəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Capable of adapting or changing to suit new or modified conditions or situations.
Capable of being flexed or bent without breaking; able to be turned or twisted without breaking.
Capable of being changed
Capable or being adapted or molded in some way.
Willing or prone to give way to the influence of others; not invincibly rigid or obstinate.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Capable of adapting or changing to suit new or modified conditions or situations.
Used this way, flexible is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- bendable , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use flexible
- “You need to be flexible to adapt to changing work schedules.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Visual examination (with a sigmoidoscope) of the lower third of the colon in a search for polyps.
An endoscope (a flexible fiberoptic probe) for examining the sigmoid colon.
A joint that holds two parts together so that one can swing relative to the other.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The property of being flexible.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Antonyms
Sense: capable of adapting or changing to suit new
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.