What's the difference between flexible, pliable, and bendy?
Oxford definitions for pliable, flexible, and bendy:
pliable: easily bent; flexible
flexible: capable of bending easily without breaking
bendy: (informal) capable of bending; soft and flexible.
Best Answer
While "pliable" seems like it might mean the same thing as "flexible", it adds the nuance, "easily bent by someone or something". The result is that "flexible" is the more common term used in a variety of contexts, and "pliable" is used to refer more specifically to things that are manipulated.
Since "flexible" can mean either the object bends itself easily or can be bent easily, it is the choice for sentences like:
Meanwhile "pliable" is the better choice to describe the manipulation of materials or objects:
Both can be used metaphorically, but note the difference between these two sentences:
The first suggests that the students would change their own opinions, while the second suggests that the students' opinions were changed by somebody else. Note that "pliable" doesn't have to be a negative, but since it suggests manipulation it often has negative overtones.
(Edit) "Bendy" is a colloquial term that is roughly equivalent to "flexible". You would not want to use it in any formal writing, but otherwise it can be substituted in any of the above examples. Because it is informal you may want to set it off with quotation marks.