What term describes a material's ability to be drawn or stretched without breaking?

Ductility is the term that describes a material's ability to be drawn or stretched without breaking. This property is particularly important in materials such as metals, which can be shaped into wires or other forms through processes like extrusion or drawing.

A ductile material can undergo significant plastic deformation before fracturing, allowing engineers to use it in applications where flexibility and the ability to withstand stretching are critical. This property contrasts with others like brittleness, which refers to a material's tendency to break or shatter easily under stress, and toughness, which pertains to a material's ability to absorb energy and plastically deform without fracturing. Elasticity refers to a material's ability to return to its original shape after deformation but does not encompass the capacity for stretching to the extent that ductility does. Thus, ductility specifically captures the capability of a material to be elongated or manipulated without immediate failure.