Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Related Searches
on Ask.com
Synonyms
Nearby Entries
facility - 6 dictionary results

fa⋅cil⋅i⋅ty

  [fuh-sil-i-tee]
Use facility in a Sentence
–noun, plural -ties.
1. Often, facilities.
a. something designed, built, installed, etc., to serve a specific function affording a convenience or service: transportation facilities; educational facilities; a new research facility.
b. something that permits the easier performance of an action, course of conduct, etc.: to provide someone with every facility for accomplishing a task; to lack facilities for handling bulk mail.
2. readiness or ease due to skill, aptitude, or practice; dexterity: to compose with great facility.
3. ready compliance: Her facility in organizing and directing made her an excellent supervisor.
4. an easy-flowing manner: facility of style.
5. the quality of being easily or conveniently done or performed.
6. Often, facilities. Informal. a rest room, esp. one for use by the public, as in a theater or restaurant.
7. freedom from difficulty, controversy, misunderstanding, etc.: facility of understanding.
Origin:
1375–1425; late ME facilite (< MF) < L facilitās. See facile, -ity
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To facility
fa·cil·i·ty   (fə-sĭl'ĭ-tē)   
n.   pl. fa·cil·i·ties
  1. Ease in moving, acting, or doing; aptitude: "an extreme facility in acquiring new dialects" (W.H. Hudson).
  2. Readiness to be persuaded; pliability.
  3. Something that facilitates an action or process. Often used in the plural. See Synonyms at amenity.
  4. Something created to serve a particular function: hospitals and other health care facilities.
  5. facilities Informal A restroom.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Facility

Fa*cil"i*ty\, n.; pl. Facilities. [L. facilitas, fr. facilis easy: cf. F. facilit?. See Facile.]

1. The quality of being easily performed; freedom from difficulty; ease; as, the facility of an operation.

The facility with which government has been overturned in France. --Burke.

2. Ease in performance; readiness proceeding from skill or use; dexterity; as, practice gives a wonderful facility in executing works of art.

3. Easiness to be persuaded; readiness or compliance; -- usually in a bad sense; pliancy.

It is a great error to take facility for good nature. --L'Estrange.

4. Easiness of access; complaisance; affability.

Offers himself to the visits of a friend with facility. --South.

5. That which promotes the ease of any action or course of conduct; advantage; aid; assistance; -- usually in the plural; as, special facilities for study.

Syn: Ease; expertness; readiness; dexterity; complaisance; condescension; affability.

Usage: Facility, Expertness, Readiness. These words have in common the idea of performing any act with ease and promptitude. Facility supposes a natural or acquired power of dispatching a task with lightness and ease. Expertness is the kind of facility acquired by long practice. Readiness marks the promptitude with which anything is done. A merchant needs great facility in dispatching business; a banker, great expertness in casting accounts; both need great readiness in passing from one employment to another. "The facility which we get of doing things by a custom of doing, makes them often pass in us without our notice." --Locke. "The army was celebrated for the expertness and valor of the soldiers." "A readiness to obey the known will of God is the surest means to enlighten the mind in respect to duty."
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Cite This Source
Language Translation for : facility
Spanish: facilidad,
German: die Leichtigkeit,
Japanese: 容易さ
More Translations »

facility 
c.1425, from M.Fr. facilité, from L. facilitatem, from facilis "easy" (see facile). Its sense in Eng. moved from "genteelness" to "opportunity" (1519), to "aptitude, ease" (1532). Meaning "place for doing something," which makes the word so beloved of journalists and fuzzy writers, first recorded 1872.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

Facility

A term used to describe financial assistance programs offered by lending institutions to help companies requiring capital

Investopedia Commentary

These financial assistance programs are merely another name for loans taken by companies. Examples of such facilities include swingline loans and lines of credits. Oftentimes you will hear of companies obtaining different credit facilities, as they can vary between committed or uncommitted.

Related Links

What Is A Corporate Credit Rating?

See also: Committed Facility, Line of Credit, Swingline Loan, Uncommitted Facility

Investopedia.com. Copyright © 1999-2005 - All rights reserved. Owned and Operated by Investopedia Inc.
Cite This Source

Main Entry: fa·cil·i·ty
Pronunciation: f&-'sil-&t-E
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural -ties
1 : the quality of being easily performed
2 : ease in performance : APTITUDE
3 : something (as a hospital) that is built, installed, or established to serve a particular purpose
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see facility on Thesaurus | Reference