Final answer:
Resilience is the ability of a material to absorb energy only until its elastic limit, which is different from toughness that includes energy absorption up to the material's breaking point.
Step-by-step explanation:
The ability of a material to absorb energy only until the elastic limit is known as resilience. This property is crucial for materials that are subjected to stress but must return to their original shape after the stress is removed. While engineering defines toughness as the ability to absorb energy without fracturing, resilience specifically refers to the energy absorption within the elastic zone of the stress-strain curve. Considering other options, ductility is the ability of a material to deform plastically without breaking, hardness is the measure of how resistant a material is to deformation, typically by indentation, and toughness combines aspects of strength and plasticity, describing the total energy absorbed by a material until fracture.