What best describes "fracture toughness"?

Fracture toughness is a critical property that describes a material's ability to resist crack propagation under an applied stress. This characteristic is particularly important in engineering applications where materials are subjected to various forms of stress, as it provides insight into how a material will behave in the presence of pre-existing flaws or cracks.

When a material has high fracture toughness, it means that it can absorb significant amounts of energy and deform plastically before failing, which is essential for preventing catastrophic failures in structures and components. This property is measured through standardized tests that assess how much stress a material can withstand before a crack grows uncontrollably. In contrast, other options relate to different material properties such as thermal resistance, electrical conductivity, and compressive strength, which do not specifically pertain to the material's behavior concerning cracks and fractures.