# facility

Pronunciation: say "fuh-SIL-i-tee" /fəˈsɪlɪti/

## Noun

1. A building or campus designed for a particular purpose, such as imprisonment, military operations, or scientific research.
   - Simple: A building or place built for one special use, like a prison, army base, or lab.
   - _Inmates are transferred to a higher-security facility after sentencing._
   - _The testing facility houses several wind tunnels and a vibration lab._
2. The equipment, infrastructure, location, and other physical means that make something possible, especially a public service.
   - Simple: The equipment, buildings, or services that make something possible, especially a public service.
   - _The hospital offers facilities for both surgery and long-term care._
   - _Every facility needed for the launch was already in place._
3. A polite or indirect term for a toilet, especially one in a public building. *(Canada, US)*
   - Simple: A polite word for a toilet, especially a public one.
   - _Before the long bus ride, the driver reminded everyone to use the facilities at the rest stop._
   - _Halfway through the movie, my little brother whispered that he needed to use the facilities._
5. Ease in doing something, or a natural ability to do or learn something easily and well.
   - Simple: Being able to do or learn something easily and well.
   - _Her facility for public speaking impressed the whole committee._
   - _He plays the piano with a facility few musicians ever reach._
4. Short for credit facility: an arrangement under which a lender agrees to make money available to a borrower, up to a set limit, as needed. — Clipping of credit facility.
   - Simple: Short for credit facility: money a bank agrees to lend when it is needed.
   - _The firm arranged a new facility with its lenders._
   - _Drawing on the facility, the startup funded its expansion._

## Noun

6. A friendly and approachable manner toward others; affability. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A friendly, easygoing manner toward other people.

## Other meanings

- (noun) In Scots law, a weakness of mind, short of insanity, that leaves a person easily persuaded to act against their own interests.

## Origin

This word came from Middle English facilite, from Middle French facilité, which traces back to Latin facilitās. It can be analyzed as facile plus the suffix -ity, and it is a doublet of 'faculty'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/facility (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).