Agile

How to spell agile

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce agile

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does agile mean?

1. adjectiveAble to move quickly, easily, and with good coordination, whether in body or in thought.
2. adjectiveDescribing an iterative approach to software development or project work that favours quick adaptation over rigid long-term plans.

Agile in a sentence

• The gymnast was remarkably agile on the balance beam.

• The development team adopted an agile workflow with two-week sprints.

• An agile mind can switch between difficult problems without losing focus.

• Their agile approach let the company respond to customer feedback within days.

Where does agile come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Agile comes from the Latin agilis, meaning 'nimble' or 'quick to move', which was built on the verb agere, 'to drive, to do, to set in motion'. That same productive root gave English a whole family of words including 'act', 'agent', 'agitate' and 'agenda', all carrying the idea of movement or doing. English picked up agile in the late 1500s, borrowing it through French agile, which had itself inherited the Latin form. The original sense was strictly physical, describing a body that could move with ease and speed, and only later did it stretch to cover mental quickness and, much more recently, flexible ways of organising work. The spelling keeps the Latin -ile ending intact, which is the small trap: it is -ile, not the -el or -al that the unstressed final sound tempts writers toward.

How the word is built

• ag- (from Latin agere: to drive, move, act)
• -ile (adjective suffix meaning 'able to' or 'tending to')