Malleable vs. Plastic — What's the Difference?

Capable of being shaped or formed, as by hammering or pressure

Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes.

Easily controlled or influenced

A synthetic material made from a wide range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, PVC, nylon, etc., that can be moulded into shape while soft, and then set into a rigid or slightly elastic form

Able to adjust to changing circumstances; adaptable

Made of plastic

Capable of being changed or adjusted to meet particular or varied needs

(of a substance or material) easily shaped or moulded

Able to be hammered into thin sheets; capable of being extended or shaped by beating with a hammer, or by the pressure of rollers.

Capable of being shaped or formed

(metaphorical) Flexible, liable to change.

Relating to or dealing with shaping or modeling

In which an adversary can alter a ciphertext such that it decrypts to a related plaintext

Having the qualities of sculpture; well-formed

Capable of being extended or shaped by beating with a hammer, or by the pressure of rollers; - applied to metals.

Giving form or shape to a substance

Capable of being influenced to behave as desired; tractable; - used mostly of children.

Easily influenced; impressionable

Easily influenced

Made of a plastic or plastics

Capable of being shaped or bent or drawn out;

(Physics) Capable of undergoing continuous deformation without rupture or relaxation.

Capable of building tissue; formative.

Able to change and adapt, especially by acquiring alternative pathways for sensory perception or motor skills. Used of the central nervous system.

Marked by artificiality or superficiality

(Informal) Of or obtained by means of credit cards

Any of various organic compounds produced by polymerization, capable of being molded, extruded, cast into various shapes and films, or drawn into filaments used as textile fibers.

(Informal) A credit card or credit cards

A synthetic, solid, hydrocarbon-based polymer, whether thermoplastic or thermosetting.

Credit or debit cards used in place of cash to buy goods and services.

Insincerity; fakeness, or a person who is fake or arrogant, or believes that they are better than the rest of the population.

An instance of plastic surgery.

(obsolete) A sculptor, moulder.

(archaic) Any solid but malleable substance.

Capable of being moulded; malleable, flexible, pliant.

Producing tissue.

(dated) Creative, formative.

(biology) Capable of adapting to varying conditions; characterized by environmental adaptability.

Of or pertaining to the inelastic, non-brittle, deformation of a material.

Made of plastic.

Inferior or not the real thing.

Fake; insincere.

Having the power to give form or fashion to a mass of matter; as, the plastic hand of the Creator.

Capable of being molded, formed, or modeled, as clay or plaster; - used also figuratively; as, the plastic mind of a child.

Pertaining or appropriate to, or characteristic of, molding or modeling; produced by, or appearing as if produced by, molding or modeling; - said of sculpture and the kindred arts, in distinction from painting and the graphic arts.

A substance composed predominantly of a synthetic organic high polymer capable of being cast or molded; many varieties of plastic are used to produce articles of commerce (after 1900). [MW10 gives origin of word as 1905]

Generic name for certain synthetic or semisynthetic materials that can be molded or extruded into objects or films or filaments or used for making e.g. coatings and adhesives

Used of the imagination;

Capable of being molded or modeled (especially of earth or clay or other soft material);

Capable of being influenced or formed;