Malleable, when referring to material or metal, means which of the following?

• A. hard and rigid
• B. easily influenced, trained, or controlled; adaptable
• C. brittle or fragile
• D. dense or heavy

Answer: (B)

Malleable describes how easily a material can be shaped or deformed without breaking. In metals, this means they can be hammered, rolled, or pressed into different forms. This sense of being easily shaped and adaptable makes the idea closest to being adaptable, which is why that option fits best. The other terms describe properties that don’t match malleability: hard and rigid imply resistance to shape change, brittle or fragile means likely to crack, and dense or heavy concerns weight rather than deformability.