Ductilityis the ability of a material to deform without breaking. One of the great advantages of metals is their ability to be formed into the shape that is needed, such as car body parts. Materials that are not ductile are brittle. Ductile materials can absorb energy by deformation but brittle materials cannot.
Toughnessis the resistance of a material to breaking when there is a crack in it. For a material of given toughness, the stress at which it will fail is inversely proportional to the square root of the size of the largest defect present. Toughness is different from strength: the toughest steels, for example, are different from the ones with highest tensile strength. Brittle materials have low toughness: glass can be broken along a chosen line by first scratching it with a diamond. Composites can be designed to have considerably greater toughness than their constituent materials. The example of a very tough composite is fiberglass that is very flexible and strong.
Creep resistanceis the resistance to a gradual permanent change of shape, and it becomes especially important at higher temperatures. A successful research has been made in materials for machine parts that operate at high temperatures and under high tensile forces without gradually extending, for example the parts of plane engines.