malleable

English

Etymology

From Middle English malliable, borrowed from Late Latin malleābilis, derived from malleāre (“to hammer”), from malleus (“hammer”), from Proto-Indo-European *mal-ni- (“crushing”), an extended variant of Proto-Indo-European *melH₂- (“crush, grind”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA: /ˈmæliəbəl/, X-SAMPA: /"m{li@b@l/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mal‧le‧a‧ble

Adjective

malleable (comparative more malleable, superlative most malleable)

1. Able to be hammered into thin sheets; capable of being extended or shaped by beating with a hammer, or by the pressure of rollers.
2. (metaphorical) Flexible, liable to change.

   My opinion on the subject is malleable.

3. (cryptography, of an algorithm) in which an adversary can alter a ciphertext such that it decrypts to a related plaintext

Related terms

• malleability
• malleableness
• malleably
• malleate

Coordinate terms

• ductile

Translations

able to be hammered into thin sheets

• Czech: kujný (cs)
• Dutch: hamerbaar (nl), smeedbaar (nl)
• Finnish: taottava (fi)
• French: malléable (fr)
• German: hämmerbar, schmiedbar
• Italian: malleabile (it)
• Norwegian: bøyelig (no), fleksibel (no), smidig (no)

• Polish: kowalny (pl) m, kujny (pl) m
• Romanian: maleabil (ro)
• Russian: ковкий (ru) (kovkij), пластичный (ru) (plastičnyj)
• Slovak: kujný
• Spanish: maleable (es)
• Swedish: smidbar (sv)

liable to change

• Dutch: kneedbaar (nl)
• Finnish: mukautuvainen (fi)
• German: formbar, dehnbar, verformbar (de), plastisch (de)
• Italian: malleabile (it)
• Manx: so-lhoobagh (gv), so-chummeydagh (gv)

• Norwegian: fleksibel (no), smidig (no)
• Polish: podatny (pl) m
• Romanian: maleabil (ro)
• Russian: податливый (ru) (podatlivyj), восприимчивый (ru) (vospriimčivyj)

References

• malleable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913