If a material can be stretched and become deformed without breaking, what property does it exhibit?

The ability of a material to be stretched and deformed without breaking is indicative of ductility. Ductility is a mechanical property that describes a material's capacity to undergo significant plastic deformation before rupture. This means that ductile materials can be drawn into wires or stretched into shapes without losing their integrity, effectively demonstrating strength in both tensile and compressive states.

Malleability is often confused with ductility; it refers to a material's ability to deform under compressive stress rather than tensile stress, which is more about how a material can be shaped. Elasticity, on the other hand, is related to a material's ability to return to its original shape after being deformed, not the ability to permanently deform. Brittleness describes the property of materials that break or fracture with little deformation, which is the opposite of what the question describes. Therefore, the characteristic in question is best attributed to ductility.