What does "robust" mean?

Able to withstand adverse conditions.

What is a synonym for "robust"?

Common synonyms include: hardy, strapping, strong, able-bodied, active, acute.

//ɹəʊˈbʌst// adj

adj ·Common ·High school level

Adjective

1
Able to withstand adverse conditions.
2
Evincing strength and health; strong; (often, especially) both large and healthy.
"He was a robust man of six feet four."
3
Requiring strength or vigor.
"robust employment"
4
Sensible (of intellect etc.); straightforward, not given to or confused by uncertainty or subtlety.
"robust findings"
5
Rough; rude. euphemistic
"As a frenetic opening continued, Cahill - whose robust approach had already prompted Jamie Carragher to register his displeasure to Atkinson - rose above the Liverpool defence to force keeper Pepe Reina into an athletic tip over the top."

Show 4 more definitions

6
Designed or evolved in such a way as to be resistant to total failure despite partial damage.
7
Resistant or impervious to failure regardless of user input or unexpected conditions.
8
Not greatly influenced by errors in assumptions about the distribution of sample errors.
9
Of an individual or skeletal element: strongly built; muscular; not gracile.

Adjective

1
rough and crude wordnet
2
sturdy and strong in form, constitution, or construction wordnet
3
strong enough to withstand or overcome intellectual challenges or adversity wordnet
4
marked by richness and fullness of flavor wordnet

"A big man is not always robust."

Learned borrowing from Latin rōbustus.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.