Reliability

How to spell reliability

11 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce reliability

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reliability mean?

1. nounThe quality of being consistently trustworthy or performing well over time.

Reliability in a sentence

• The new supplier was chosen for its proven reliability.

• Engineers tested the engine for fuel economy and long-term reliability.

Where does reliability come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from 'reliable' plus the noun-forming suffix '-ity', which turns an adjective into the name of a quality. 'Reliable' itself joins 'rely' to '-able', meaning roughly 'able to be relied upon'. The verb 'rely' came into English through Old French 'relier', which descended from the Latin 'religare', literally 'to bind fast' or 'to tie back', formed from 're-' and 'ligare', meaning 'to bind'. The same Latin 'ligare' sits inside familiar relatives such as 'ligament', 'ally', and 'league', all of which carry the idea of things being bound together. The modern meaning shifted from the physical notion of binding to the trust you place in something dependable, and the abstract noun 'reliability' became common in the 1800s as engineering and statistics needed a word for how consistently something performs.

How the word is built

• reli- (from rely, ultimately Latin religare: to bind fast)
• -able (able to be)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix: quality of)