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brittle

/ˈbrɪtl//ˈbrɪtl/·adjective
hard but liable to snap or shatter; lacking the give to bend
Fig. 1 — Two beams are bolted to the same wall and made to carry the same slowly growing weight.
01Definition

Brittle things are strong right up until they are not. A brittle material — glass, dry bone, aged plastic — resists pressure without flexing, storing the strain instead of absorbing it, until it fails all at once and shatters. The word's lesson is the opposite of resilient: what cannot bend has nowhere to put a shock, so it breaks. Figuratively, a brittle smile or a brittle peace is one held rigid over tension, and just as quick to crack.

02In use
  • iGlass is hard but brittle: it will not bend even slightly before it shatters.
  • iiYears of frost can make exposed rock brittle enough to erode at a touch.
  • iiiTheir alliance looked solid but proved brittle, cracking at the first real disagreement.
03Collocations
  • brittle bones
  • grow brittle
  • brittle and prone to cracking
  • a brittle smile

Family brittleness (noun)

04Relations

=fragile, delicate, frail, crumbly, breakable

≠resilient, flexible, supple

05Compared
PairThe difference
brittle vs resilienttakes the hit and bounces back → resilient; can't give and shatters → brittle.
brittle vs robustthe shock fails to land, it holds → robust; it can't give and snaps → brittle.
06TOEFL & IELTS

TOEFL science passages use 'brittle' literally — brittle materials, brittle bones, brittle deformation in geology — often contrasted with flexible or ductile ones. In IELTS Writing it works figuratively for fragile systems ('a brittle economy'). The key contrast to learn is brittle versus resilient: one shatters under stress, the other absorbs it. Note the noun 'brittleness'.

07Asked
What is the difference between brittle and fragile?
Fragile just means easily broken — a soap bubble, a scrap of old lace, a truce. Brittle is a specific way of breaking: hard and stiff right up to failure, then a sudden, clean fracture with no bending first. Engineers can measure brittleness in a lab; fragility is only a warning label. Glass is both; a house of cards is merely fragile.
What is the difference between brittle and ductile?
These are materials science's true opposites: a ductile material deforms before it fails — copper stretches into wire, steel bends and bulges as a warning — while a brittle one takes no deformation at all and snaps without notice. That warning gap is why engineers fear brittle failure most: nothing sags first.
Why do materials become brittle?
Three usual culprits: cold (many plastics and metals lose their give as temperature drops), age (plasticisers evaporate, polymers degrade — old rubber bands crumble), and drying (wood, leather, skin). In each case the material loses its way of absorbing strain, and stress that once bent it now has nowhere to go but a crack.
What does brittle mean in medicine?
Clinically it marks tissue that breaks or splits too easily: brittle nails describe splitting and cracking with everyday use, and brittle bone disease is the common name for osteogenesis imperfecta, an inherited condition in which bones fracture from minor stress. In both, the word is descriptive — a clinician's shorthand for fragility beyond the normal range.
Can a person be brittle?
Yes — a brittle laugh, a brittle temper, a brittle composure: each is held rigid over strain and liable to crack at a touch. The figurative use imports the beam from the scene above whole — the one that refuses to bend a hair, looks the tougher for it, then breaks clean through without a creak of warning.
What is the opposite of brittle?
In the lab, ductile; in general use, the site pairs it with resilient (springs back) and robust (barely notices the blow) — where brittle bends nothing and pays for it all at once. Both full contrasts, scene against scene, are on the resilient vs brittle and robust vs brittle pages in the 'Compared' list above.