1. ecology the ability of a community to avoid alteration of its present state by a disturbance 2. pesticides the ability of an individual or strains of organisms to survive normally lethal doses of pesticides —note resistance results from genetic selection over multiple generations of the population to repeated exposure to the toxicant 3. entomology and pathology the ability of plants to avoid, suppress, prevent, overcome, or tolerate insect or pathogen attack or to adversely affect the attacking insects or pathogens —note resistance may be none (death), partial, or complete (immune) —see escape, susceptibilityThis definition last updated 08/14/2008