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robust

/roʊˈbʌst//rəʊˈbʌst/·adjective
strong and sturdy; able to withstand stress without failing
Fig. 1 — A heavy block sits in the middle, and blows come at it from every side, each one swung harder than the one before.
01Definition

Robust means built to take a beating and keep working — from the Latin robur, 'oak', the hardest of woods. A robust bridge, a robust immune system, a robust economy all share one trait: they absorb shocks that would break weaker things and carry on unharmed. Unlike resilient, which bounces back after damage, robust suggests the damage barely lands at all. It is the flat opposite of brittle and tenuous: where those fail at the first real strain, the robust holds.

02In use
  • iEngineers designed a robust frame that shrugs off the worst storms.
  • iiThe study's conclusions rest on a robust set of data.
  • iiiA robust economy can absorb a shock that would cripple a weaker one.
03Collocations
  • a robust system
  • robust evidence
  • a robust economy
  • robust health

Family robustness (noun) · robustly (adverb)

04Relations

=sturdy, tough, durable, hardy, sound

≠brittle, fragile, tenuous

05Compared
PairThe difference
robust vs resilienttakes the hit and recovers → resilient; barely lets the hit land → robust.
robust vs brittlethe shock fails to land, it holds → robust; it can't give and snaps → brittle.
06TOEFL & IELTS

A versatile, high-band word: TOEFL uses it for sturdy structures and strong scientific evidence ('robust findings'), and IELTS rewards 'a robust argument/economy/system'. Distinguish it from 'resilient' (recovers after a hit) — robust resists the hit in the first place. The noun 'robustness' is common in research and engineering. Stress the second syllable: ro-BUST.

07Asked
What does robust mean?
Strong enough to take stress and keep working — the word runs from the physical (a robust bridge, robust health) to the abstract (a robust argument, robust evidence). The common thread is unbothered strength: a robust thing absorbs what would break a weaker one and carries on. From Latin robur, 'oak', the hardest wood; the scene above is the whole idea, a block barely shuddering as blows spend themselves flat against it.
What is the difference between robust and resilient?
Robust resists the hit; resilient recovers from it — and why resilient is a third kind of strength again is drawn on the robust vs brittle page in the 'Compared' list above.
What does robust mean in statistics or data?
Trustworthy because it holds up under pressure-testing. A robust result survives changes in method, sample or assumptions; a robust statistic (like the median) is barely moved by outliers, where a fragile one (the mean) lurches. So 'robust findings' is not vague praise — it is a specific claim that the conclusion did not depend on one lucky choice, which is exactly why examiners reward the phrase.
What does a robust economy or system mean?
One that absorbs shocks without failing — a downturn, a supply cut, a surge in demand arrives and the thing keeps functioning. The word promises endurance under load rather than mere size: a large economy can still be fragile, and a robust one is built to take the blow. Its natural companions are withstand, absorb and shrug off.
How do you pronounce robust?
ro-BUST — stress on the second syllable, rhyming with 'trust'. Putting the weight on the first (RO-bust) is the usual slip and marks a learner instantly; the same end-stress carries into robustly and robustness. British and American English agree on the stress, differing only in the first vowel's shade, so this is a safe one to say aloud.