affable

Meanings

1. Friendly, pleasant and easy to talk to.
2. Showing a relaxed and polite manner.

Example sentences

• "Our affable guide made everyone laugh."

  Level C1, Meaning 1

• "He was an affable man who never raised his voice."

  Level C1, Meaning 1

• "She greeted the visitors with an affable smile."

  Level C1, Meaning 2

• "The mayor is affable in public but strict in private."

  Level C1, Meaning 1

Synonyms and antonyms

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• amiable : Amiable is almost the same, and often suggests a naturally likable person. Affable stresses easy, friendly manners.
• friendly : Friendly is the everyday word. Affable is more formal and often describes how someone behaves in company.

Word family and forms

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "affable".

• affable manner
• affable host
• an affable smile
• affable and polite
• affable enough
• an affable young man

Origin

Affable comes from Latin affabilis, which meant easy to speak to or courteous. It is built from a prefix meaning to, a stem meaning to speak, and an ending meaning able to be, so it describes someone you can speak to. The English word appears in the 1500s, perhaps by way of Middle French, and it is a relative of fable.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

How to remember it

Affable has fable in it, and a fable is a story you tell. An affable person is easy to talk to.

Test yourself

Learn next at C1

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• allege To claim that something is true, without yet offering proof.
• aloof Distant and not friendly, keeping apart from others.
• amenable Willing to agree or go along with a suggestion.