Robust means built to take a beating and carry on. A robust pair of walking boots, a robust old washing machine that has outlived three kitchens, a robust table you can stand on to change a bulb.
The word reaches well past objects. A robust person is strong and healthy — eighty and still robust. A robust argument holds up when people attack it, robust evidence survives being checked, and a robust system keeps running when parts of it fail, which is why science, engineering and business writing are full of the word. It does taste too: a robust red wine or a robust cheese is full and strong rather than delicate. And a robust reply is forceful and unapologetic, so a robust exchange of views is a polite way of saying a row. Robust is not the same as heavy — a thing can be light in the hand and robust all the same.
1adjectiverobustStrongly built and able to survive rough treatment.~20%
“The camera has a robust rubber case.”
synonyms: sturdy, tough, hard-wearing
2adjectivevigorousStrong and healthy.~16%
“He was eighty and still robust.”
synonyms: vigorous
3adjectivesoundAble to stand up to testing, argument, or hard use.~62%
“The committee wanted more robust evidence before deciding.”
4adjectiveflavourFull and strong in taste or smell.~2%
“The soup had a robust, peppery flavour.”
synonyms: full-bodied, rich
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 146 sentences found in the wild and placed 143 of them on a sense (3 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: sturdy
ro-BUS-t → a BUS
A pine tree comes down across the road and lands on an old red bus. The tree breaks in two. The bus drives on to the next stop with a branch on its roof.
hooks ontobus
Latin
rōbustus
English, today
robust
Learned borrowing from Latin rōbustus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA