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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Facility \Fa*cil"i*ty\ (f[.a]*s[i^]l"[i^]*t[y^]), n.; pl.
{Facilities} (f[.a]*s[i^]l"[i^]*t[i^]z). [L. facilitas, fr.
facilis easy: cf. F. facilit['e]. See {Facile}.]
1. The quality of being easily performed; freedom from
difficulty; ease; as, the facility of an operation.
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The facility with which government has been
overturned in France. --Burke.
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2. Ease in performance; readiness proceeding from skill or
use; dexterity; as, practice gives a wonderful facility in
executing works of art.
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3. Easiness to be persuaded; readiness or compliance; --
usually in a bad sense; pliancy.
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It is a great error to take facility for good
nature. --L'Estrange.
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4. Easiness of access; complaisance; affability.
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Offers himself to the visits of a friend with
facility. --South.
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5. That which promotes the ease of any action or course of
conduct; advantage; aid; assistance; -- usually in the
plural; as, special facilities for study.

Syn: Ease; expertness; readiness; dexterity; complaisance;
condescension; affability.

Usage: {Facility}, {Expertness}, {Readiness}. These words
have in common the idea of performing any act with
ease and promptitude. Facility supposes a natural or
acquired power of dispatching a task with lightness
and ease. Expertness is the kind of facility acquired
by long practice. Readiness marks the promptitude with
which anything is done. A merchant needs great
facility in dispatching business; a banker, great
expertness in casting accounts; both need great
readiness in passing from one employment to another.
"The facility which we get of doing things by a custom
of doing, makes them often pass in us without our
notice." --Locke. "The army was celebrated for the
expertness and valor of the soldiers." "A readiness to
obey the known will of God is the surest means to
enlighten the mind in respect to duty."
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