High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In materials science, the strength of a material is its ability to withstand an applied stress without failure. Yield strength refers to the point on the engineering stress-strain curve (as opposed to true stress-strain curve) beyond which the material begins deformation that cannot be reversed upon removal of the loading. Ultimate strength refers to the point on the engineering stress-strain curve corresponding to the maximum stress. The applied stress may be tensile, compressive, or shear, torsion.