DictionaryAI

resistance

noun
ri-ZIS-tuhns/ɹɪˈzɪstəns/

Pluralresistances (some meanings)

5 meanings of resistance

Practice

  1. 1
    pushing backnoununcountable
    The act of resisting something, or the ability to oppose or withstand it.

    The new policy faced fierce resistance from union members.

    Years of training gave the athletes remarkable resistance to fatigue.

    UsageUsually resistance to something (to change, to fatigue); people meet or put up resistance.

    Similaropposition

    Oppositeacceptance, support, submission, susceptibility

    Note

    A long-lived idiom pairs it with make: Margery Allingham's captive made no resistance and came quietly, and John Kettlewell's Christianity, a Doctrine of the Cross urged making no warlike resistance.

  2. 2
    underground groupnounusually singular
    An underground organization engaged in a struggle to free a country from forceful occupation.

    The resistance blew up the rail line to slow the invading army.

    Members of the resistance printed secret newspapers throughout the occupation.

    UsageUsually with the: join the resistance, the local resistance.

    Similarunderground, insurgency, partisans

    Note

    Here the act becomes the people doing it: the act of resisting turned into a name for an organized movement. It travels easily into fiction. In BioWare's Mass Effect 3: From Ashes (2012), an overstretched alliance covertly aids the local resistance on an occupied colony.

  3. 3
    slowing forcenoununcountable
    A force that tends to oppose the motion of an object.

    A cyclist leaning forward reduces wind resistance at high speeds.

    The parachute creates enough resistance to slow the diver's descent.

    UsageUsually with the medium first: air resistance, wind resistance, water resistance.

    Similardrag, friction

    Note

    In physics the word names a force that pushes back against motion, such as drag through air or water or friction along a surface. Unlike electrical resistance, it is a force that opposes motion or the start of motion, not a measure of how a conductor opposes electric current.

  4. 4
    electricalnouncountable or uncountable
    The opposition that a conductor or circuit component offers to the flow of electric current through it, measured in ohms.

    Engineers reduced the resistance in the cable to limit energy loss.

    The resistance of a copper wire goes up as the wire heats.

    Oppositeconductance

    Note

    Here resistance becomes a measurable quantity: the voltage across a conductor divided by the current through it, expressed in ohms. A conductor has it in degrees, high or low, rising or falling with temperature. Engineers therefore speak of a resistance of so many ohms, or of reducing a cable's resistance, rather than treating it as an object.

    Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Electrical resistance is voltage divided by current, measured in ohms. fda.gov
    • A particular conductor or component has resistance; the corresponding intrinsic property of its material is resistivity. en.wikipedia.org
    • Resistance can increase or decrease with temperature. openstax.org

Less common meaning

  1. 5
    circuit partnoundatedcountable
    A resistor; an earlier term for the electrical component that limits current in a circuit.

    Similarresistor

    Note

    The component, not the quantity. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1928 could still write of any number of resistances connected in parallel. Used this way the word is countable: a resistance burns out or gets soldered in. That is how to tell it from the electrical property measured in ohms. Modern usage says resistor for the part and keeps resistance for what the part provides.

    Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Resistance was an earlier term for the component now called a resistor. en.wiktionary.org
    • AT&T used resistances for circuit components connected in parallel in 1928. en.wiktionary.org
    • The cited passage refers to any number of resistances being connected in parallel. en.wiktionary.org
    • Electrical resistance as a quantity is measured in ohms. nist.gov

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of resistance apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

This came through Middle English and Old French from Latin "resistentia." Morphologically it is "resist" plus the suffix "-ance."

Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  • Resistance came through Middle English and Old French from Latin resistentia. en.wiktionary.org
  • Resistance can be analysed morphologically as resist plus -ance. en.wiktionary.org