Adjective: able
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
| Comparative | abler |
| Superlative | ablest |
Perifrastic
Sample Sentences
-
She is able to lift the box without assistance.
-
In a democratic world you'd be able to say what you thought wherever you were.
-
I'll see you as soon as I'm able.
-
With that obstacle removed, I am now able to proceed with my plan.
-
The chairman was also an able sailor.
-
Natures that haue much Heat, and great and violent deſires and Perturbations, are not ripe for Action, till they haue paſſed the Meridian of their yeares: As it was with Iulius Cæſar, and Septimius Seuerus. […] And yet he [Septimus Severus] was the Ableſt Emperour, almoſt, of all the Liſt. [1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Youth and Age. XLII.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, pages 247–248:]
-
Urania speaks with darken’d brow:
-
‘Thou pratest here where thou art least;
-
This faith has many a purer priest,
-
And many an abler voice than thou: […]’ [1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXVII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 57:]
-
He is able to practice law in six states.
-
After the past week of forced marches, only half the men are fully able.
-
As the hands are the most habil parts of the body... [1710, Thomas Betterton, The life of Mr. Thomas Betterton, the late eminent tragedian.:]
-
[…] and for every able man servant that he or she shall carry or send armed and provided as aforesaid, ninety acres of land of like measure. [2006, Jon L. Wakelyn, America's Founding Charters: Primary Documents of Colonial and Revolutionary Era Governance, volume 1, Greenwood Publishing Group, page 212:]
-
He was born to an able family.
Adjectives inflected like able
scarce,
smoove,
sombre,
wholsome,
sheene,
bolshie,
baroque,
concrete,
seveare,
comf'table,
shrewde,
'umble,
grislie,
unsubtle,
ungentle,
indiscrete,
couthie,
chavvie,
lissome,
cutesie, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)
Etymology
1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ-
3. Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti
4. Proto-Indo-European *-yeti
5. Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti
6. Proto-Indo-European *gʰh₁bʰéh₁yeti
7. Proto-Italic *haβēō
8. Latin habeō
9. Proto-Indo-European *-elis
10. Proto-Italic *-elis
11. Latin -ilis
12. Latin habilis
13. Old French ablebor.
14. Middle English able
15. English able
16. From Middle English able, from Old Northern French able, variant of Old French abile, habile, from Latin habilis (“easily managed, held, or handled; apt; skillful”). Doublet of habile. See: Latin Adjectives '
habilis'.
Verbs referencing "able"
Spanish Adjectives
hábil.