having necessary power, skill, resources, or qualifications; qualified: able to lift a two-hundred-pound weight; able to write music; able to travel widely; able to vote.
having unusual or superior intelligence, skill, etc.: an able leader.
showing talent, skill, or knowledge: an able speech.
legally empowered, qualified, or authorized.
Usually Able . a code word formerly used in communications to represent the letter A.
- o·ver·a·ble, adjective
- o·ver·a·b·ly, adverb
Other definitions for -able (2 of 2)
a suffix meaning “capable of, susceptible of, fit for, tending to, given to,” associated in meaning with the word able, occurring in loanwords from Latin (laudable); used in English as a highly productive suffix to form adjectives by addition to stems of any origin (teachable; photographable).
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use able in a sentence
Their finest thinkers and ablest warriors migrated southward.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates saw Petraeus as the ablest choice.
For many years his staff has been the ablest on Capitol Hill, but most of the public never knew their names.
She is immensely rich, one of the ablest political women in London, and Jack is desperately in love with her.Ancestors | Gertrude Atherton
Reverend McCarthy, one of the oldest, and regarded as one of the strongest, one of the ablest ministers to such a forsaken charge.The Homesteader | Oscar Micheaux
Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, died; an English statesman, the ablest minister of his time.The Every Day Book of History and Chronology | Joel Munsell
Mr. Grierson was, perhaps, the ablest witness before Parliamentary Committees the railway service ever had, which is saying much.Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland | Joseph Tatlow
His Evidences of Christianity is one of the ablest defences of the Christian religion that has ever appeared.The Every Day Book of History and Chronology | Joel Munsell
British Dictionary definitions for able (1 of 2)
(postpositive) having the necessary power, resources, skill, time, opportunity, etc, to do something: able to swim
capable; competent; talented: an able teacher
law qualified, competent, or authorized to do some specific act
British Dictionary definitions for -able (2 of 2)
capable of, suitable for, or deserving of (being acted upon as indicated): enjoyable; pitiable; readable; separable; washable
inclined to; given to; able to; causing: comfortable; reasonable; variable
- -ably, suffix forming adverbs
- -ability, suffix forming nouns
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012