Conductibility

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The capacity of a material or substance to allow electricity or heat to pass through it
2. A measure of how well something transmits electrical current or thermal energy
3. The property of enabling the transfer of electric charge or heat within a material

Etymology: "Conductibility" is conduct plus the suffix "-ibility," which turns an adjective ending in "-ible" into a noun meaning the quality of being that thing. Here "conduct" is the verb in its older sense of leading or guiding something along a path, which is the same root that gives "conductor" and "conduit." In English, "conductible" describes something able to be led or carried through, and "conductibility" names how readily a material lets a physical agent such as heat or electricity pass along it. The word's history is therefore a matter of ordinary English word-building rather than a single famous coinage. The "-ible" and "-ibility" pattern came into English through French and Latin, and it was applied to "conduct" when people needed a term for the capacity to transmit. Its meaning narrowed over time: the general sense of being guided along a route gave way, in scientific writing, to the specific idea of a substance carrying heat or current.