resistance

(rĭ-zĭs'təns)

1. The act or an instance of resisting or the capacity to resist.
2. A force that tends to oppose or retard motion.
3. often Resistance An underground organization engaged in a struggle for national liberation in a country under military or totalitarian occupation.
4. Psychology. A process in which the ego opposes the conscious recall of anxiety-producing experiences.
5. Biology.
   1. The capacity of an organism to defend itself against a disease.
   2. The capacity of an organism or a tissue to withstand the effects of a harmful environmental agent.
6. Electricity. The opposition of a body or substance to current passing through it, resulting in a change of electrical energy into heat or another form of energy.

View more Science videos

For more information on resistance, visit Britannica.com.

In electricity, a measurement of the difficulty encountered by a power source in forcing electric current through an electrical circuit, and hence the amount of power dissipated in the circuit. Resistance is measured in ohms.

In weight training, the weight moved by, or whose movement is resisted by, a muscular contraction.

noun

1. The act of resisting: opposition, renitence, renitency. See resist/yield.
2. The capacity to withstand: immunity, imperviousness, insusceptibility, unsusceptibility. See resist/yield.
3. A clandestine organization of freedom fighters in an oppressed land: underground. See resist/yield.

Definition: fighting, opposition
Antonyms: acceptance, compliance, conforming, cooperation, receptivity, submission

The physical property of a device, conductor, element, branch, or system, by virtue of which power is lost as heat when current flows through it; the physical property which an electric conductor exhibits to the flow of current; measured in ohms.

The amount of force opposing a movement.

Symbolized "R" and measured in ohms. Opposition to current flow and dissipation of energy in the form of heat.

Making waves and creating friction slows down your boat
All boats resist being moved through the water. Resistance takes three main forms: skin friction, wave-making resistance, and eddy-making resistance.Skin friction is naturally greater if the bottom surface is rough, and it varies with the speed of the boat. More friction is experienced in the front part of the boat because it passes through still water, whereas the after parts of the hull pass through water that has already been given some forward motion. Skin friction is the major portion of resistance at low speeds. The lighter the displacement of a boat, the greater is the proportion of skin resistance to total resistance.Wave-making resistance is caused by the boat literally pushing aside water as it moves forward. This type of resistance increases with speed until the boat is sitting in the hollow of a wave about the length of her hull, with crests at the bow and stern. Although displacement hulls cannot escape this wave, a powerful planing hull can rise over its own bow wave and increase its speed by shedding most of its wave-making resistance.Eddy-making resistance is perhaps the most intriguing of all forms of resistance. Whenever the passage of a boat through the water causes eddies—the swirls and little whirlpools you often see in a wake—the boat will be slowed down. It takes energy to create eddies, and that energy is subtracted from the power driving the boat forward.Anything projecting from the hull, such as a through-hull fitting, a depth-sounder’s transducer, or a propeller strut, will cause eddies. On a fin-keel sailboat, speed-robbing eddies often form at the very bottom of the keel, where there is a substantial pressure differential between the two sides. Winglets similar to those seen on the wingtips of commercial jetliners help prevent keel-tip eddies, but also contribute more skin friction at slow speeds.See also Hull Shapes; Planing.

Quotes:

"Resistance is thought transformed into feeling. Change the thought that creates the resistance, and there is no more resistance." - Robert Conklin

"Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you." - Wayne Dyer

1. the ability of a living organism, particularly a bacterium, to resist the effect of a disadvantageous environment or substance, especially an antibiotic. A bacterium may possess one or more resistance plasmids.
2. see electric resistance.

1. opposition, or counteracting force, as opposition of a conductor to passage of electricity or other energy or substance.
2. the natural ability of a normal organism to remain unaffected by noxious agents in its environment. See also immunity.
3. acquired ability of a bacterium or helminth or arthropod parasite to survive in the presence of concentrations of a chemical which are normally lethal to the organisms of that species. Occurs usually as a result of prolonged growth of the organism in sublethal concentrations of the agent and the survival of the organisms which have the least innate susceptibility to the agent. Has serious implications for animals which may find themselves without a suitable remedy for a disease, and for humans who may experience transfer of a resistant organism from the food supply.
4. in studies of respiration, an expression of the opposition to flow of air produced by the tissues of the air passages, in terms of pressure per amount of air per unit of time.

• drug r. — the ability of a microorganism to withstand doses of a drug that are lethal to most members of its species.
• peripheral r. — resistance to the passage of blood through the small blood vessels, especially the arterioles.
• transferable r. — antimicrobial resistance genes carried by bacteria on plasmids or transposons can often be readily acquired by other strains of the same species, by different species, and sometimes by organisms in different genera. Of considerable import in consideration of the implications of antimicrobial therapy in animal populations and in public health. The full significance is difficult to ascertain.

• Diagnostic Terminology - resistance: measure of body’s immunity to disease; degree to which disease is unaffected by antibiotics or drugs
• Electricity and Magnetism - resistance: opposition to flow of electric current; ratio of potential difference across conductor to magnitude of current in it
• Electricity and Electronics - resistance: force that opposes flow of current through a conductor, measured in ohms; reciprocal of conductance
• Revolution and Antigovernment Activity - resistance: underground organization opposing government, esp. occupying force, through sabotage
• Soldiers and Military Life - resistance: organized opposition to occupying enemy forces
• Cultural Movements, Events, and Institutions - resistance: organized underground movement opposing foreign occupation or government repression
• Opposition, Disagreement, and Attack - resistance: opposition by one to another

Common misspelling(s) of resistance

• resistence

Dansk (Danish)
n. - modstand, modstandsdygtighed, modstandsbevægelse

Nederlands (Dutch)
verzet, weerstand, verzetsbeweging weg van de minste weerstand

Français (French)
n. - résistance, (Psych) résistance, (Physiol) résistance, (Élec) résistance, (Pol, Hist) la Résistance

Deutsch (German)
n. - Widerstand, Widerstandsfähigkeit

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αντίσταση

Italiano (Italian)
resistenza, resistore

idioms:

• line/path of least resistance    la via più facile

Português (Portuguese)
n. - resistência (f)

idioms:

• line/path of least resistance    lei do menor esforço

Русский (Russian)
противодействие, сопротивление, стойкость, реостат

idioms:

• line/path of least resistance    путь наименьшего сопротивления

Español (Spanish)
n. - resistencia, oposición, inmunidad

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - motstånd, motvärn, (fys) resistans

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
抵抗, 反抗, 抗性, 抵抗力, 耐性

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 抵抗, 反抗, 抗性, 抵抗力, 耐性

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 저항 , 지하 저항운동, 방해

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 抵抗, 反抗, 反対, 抵抗器, 抵抗運動, 抵抗力

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مقاومه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮התנגדות, מחתרת, כוח-התנגדות לתנאים משתנים, אי-רגישות לתרופה, כוח ההאטה או העצירה שמפעיל גוף פיסי על אחר, תכונת ההתנגדות של חומר לזרימת חשמל בתוכו‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.