# robust

Pronunciation: say "roh-BUST" US /ɹoʊˈbʌst/, UK /ɹəʊˈbʌst/, AUS /ɹəʉˈbɐst/

## Adjective

1. Able to withstand difficult or adverse conditions without being damaged or weakened.
   - Simple: Strong enough to keep working well even in hard or difficult conditions.
   - _The bridge was built to stay robust against floods and earthquakes._
   - _Engineers designed a robust casing to protect the device from drops and dust._
2. Showing strength and good health; strong, and often both large and healthy.
   - Simple: Strong and healthy, often big and full of energy too.
   - _After months of training, he looked robust and full of energy._
   - _The farm raised robust cattle that thrived in the cold climate._
3. Designed or evolved to resist complete failure even when partly damaged.
   - Simple: Built or grown so it keeps working even when one part breaks.
   - _The network was robust, continuing to route traffic even after several nodes failed._
   - _A robust ecosystem can recover after losing some of its species._
4. Resistant to failure no matter what the user does or what unexpected conditions arise.
   - Simple: Able to keep working without crashing, even when used wrongly or in odd situations.
   - _A robust parser handles malformed files without throwing an error._
   - _The team wrote robust code that recovers cleanly from bad user input._
5. Calling for physical strength or vigorous effort to carry out.
   - Simple: Needing a lot of strength or energy to do.
   - _Mountain climbing is robust activity that demands real stamina and power._
   - _The recruits faced a robust training schedule every morning._
6. Sensible and straightforward in mind, not given to or confused by uncertainty or subtlety.
   - Simple: Plain and sensible in thinking, not thrown off by doubts or fine details.
   - _Her robust judgment cut straight through the committee's endless hedging._
   - _He brought a robust, practical mind to every debate._
7. Of a body or bone, strongly built and muscular rather than slight and slender.
   - Simple: Having a strongly built, muscular body or bones, not slender.
   - _The skeleton was notably robust, with thick limb bones and heavy brow ridges._
   - _Researchers noted the robust build of the early hominin's skull._
8. Of a statistical method: not greatly affected by errors in assumptions about how the sample errors are distributed.
   - Simple: Still working well even when the data has mistakes or doesn't fit the usual pattern.
   - _The team chose a robust estimator that resists the influence of outliers._
   - _A robust test gives reliable results even when the data isn't normally distributed._
9. Rough or coarse in nature; rude and lacking refinement.
   - Simple: Rough, coarse, or rude in the way someone behaves.
   - _The sailor's robust humor was too coarse for the dinner party._
   - _He had a robust, blunt manner that offended some listeners._

## Origin

A learned borrowing from Latin "rōbustus".

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