There are already excellent technical answers to this question!

So I’m going to try a

more practical approach to it.

A “Ductile” material is one that bends rather than breaking. For example: You would say
a rock is harder than a sponge (Obviously), but throw both from a 20th floor and see
which one breaks ;)

The sponge has a ductile behaviour, so it will absorb the energy by changing its shape
and it won’t break when it reaches the ground. On the other hand, the rock is not
ductile: It doesn’t have the capability of changing its shape (It has a brittle behaviour),
so it will break to the impact.

Some examples of ductile materials are: Aluminum, copper, steel, most plastics, lead
(pb), zinc, etc

Hope it helps you! Bye :)