  Ceramics are easy to break, and very few generic mechanisms are available for
improving their mechanical properties, e.g., the 1975-discovered anti-fracture
mechanism is strictly limited to zirconia and hafnia. Here we report a general
mechanism for achieving high plasticity through liquefaction of ceramics. We
further disclose the general material design strategies to achieve this
difficult task through entropy-boosted amorphous ceramics (EBACs), enabling
fracture-resistant properties that can withstand severe plastic deformation
(e.g., over 95%, deformed to a thickness of a few nanometers) while maintaining
high hardness and reduced modulus. The findings reported here open a new route
to ductile ceramics and many applications.
