Standard Lemma guide

acceptable

adj · noun · 7 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /əkˈsɛp.tə.bəl/
  • /ækˈsɛp.tə.bəl/
  • /ɪkˈsɛp.tə.bəl/
  • obsolete: /ˈæksɛp.tə.bəl/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: AE0 K S EH1 P T AH0 B AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  • CMU ARPABET 2: AH0 K S EH1 P T AH0 B AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Worthy, decent, sure of being accepted or received with at least moderate pleasure.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • We need to find an acceptable present for Jeff.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: acceptable, agreeable, all right, amazing, as fine as Dick's hatband, awesome, beatific, bene, blissful, bodacious, bona, brilliant, celestial, commendable, cool, dandy as candy, decent, delightful, divine, enjoyable, excellent, exceptional, fabulous, fantastic, fine, goated, goloptious, good as wheat in the bin, gratifying, great, heavenlike, heavenly, incredible, lovely, magnificent, marvelous, neat, nice, not bad, outstanding, perfect, phenomenal, pleasant, pleasing, positive, rad, radical, right as rain, satisfying, solid, splendid, stellar, stupendous, super, superb, sweet, sweet as a nut, terrific, tubular, well, wicked, wonderful, wondrous, abideable, admissible, allowable, permissible, sufferable, supportable, tolerable, accepted, accustomed, book, by the book, canonical, classic, consistent, conventional, customary, definitive, desired, established, expected, habitual, law-abiding, ordinal, ordinary, orthodox, plain, procedural, recognized, regular, routinary, routine, standard, traditional, typical, uniform, usual, wonted, legit, legitimate, leveful, licit, rightful, rulable, true, valid

Antonyms: inacceptable, rejectable, unacceptable

2

adj

Meaning 2

Barely worthy, less than excellent; passable.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • The designs were acceptable, but they were nothing special either.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: acceptable, adequate, all right, average, close enough, close enough for government work, close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades, decent, favoursome, fair, fine, jake, good enough, good enough for government work, hunky dory, kosher, mustn't grumble, nonbad, not bad, not half bad, OK, okay, okayish, passable, pretty good, tolerable, up to par, up to scratch, up to snuff, reasonable, respectable, satisfactory, snug, sufficient, suitable, tickety-boo

Antonyms: inacceptable, unacceptable

3

noun

Meaning 3

Someone or something that is acceptable.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: rejectable

4

adjective

Meaning 4

worthy of acceptance or satisfactory

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • acceptable levels of radiation
  • performances varied from acceptable to excellent

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: unacceptable

5

adjective satellite

Meaning 5

adequate for the purpose

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the water was acceptable for drinking

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

adjective satellite

Meaning 6

meeting requirements

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the step makes a satisfactory seat

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: satisfactory

Antonyms: none provided

7

adjective satellite

Meaning 7

judged to be in conformity with approved usage

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • acceptable English usage

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English acceptable, from Anglo-Norman and Middle French acceptable, from Late Latin acceptābilis (“worthy of acceptance”). Morphologically accept + -able.

Across languages

Translations

58 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Armenian: ընդունելի (ənduneli) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Azerbaijani: məqbul — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Azerbaijani: qəbul edilə bilən — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Azerbaijani: münasib — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Belarusian: прыма́льны (prymálʹny) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Bulgarian: приемлив (priemliv) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Bulgarian: допустим (dopustim) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Catalan: acceptable — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Chinese Mandarin: 可接受的 (kě jiēshòu de) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Cornish: kemeradow — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Czech: přijatelný — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Dutch: aanvaardbaar — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Dutch: acceptabel — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Esperanto: akceptebla — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Esperanto: akceptinda — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Estonian: vastuvõetav — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Finnish: hyväksyttävä — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • French: acceptable — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • French: admissible — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Galician: aceptable — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • German: annehmbar — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • German: akzeptabel — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Gothic: 𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌽𐌴𐌼𐍃 (andanēms) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Greek: παραδεκτός (paradektós) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Greek: δεκτός (dektós) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Greek: αποδεκτός (apodektós) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Ancient Greek: παραδεκτός (paradektós) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Ancient Greek: ἀπόδεκτος (apódektos) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Hindi: स्वीकार्य (svīkārya) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Hungarian: elfogadható — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Icelandic: ásættanlegur — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Interlingua: acceptabile — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Irish: inghlactha — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Italian: accettabile — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Latin: acceptus — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Malayalam: സ്വീകാര്യമായ (svīkāryamāya) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Marathi: स्वीकार्य (svīkārya) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Mauritian Creole: akseptab — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Middle English: acceptable — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Norwegian: antakelig — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Polish: akceptowalny — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Polish: dopuszczalny — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Portuguese: aceitável — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Romanian: acceptabil — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Russian: прие́млемый (prijémlemyj) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Spanish: aceptable — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Spanish: asumible — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Swedish: acceptabel — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Swedish: godtagbar — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Swedish: tacknämlig — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Tagalog: katanggap-tanggap — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Telugu: అంగీకార యోగ్యమైన (aṅgīkāra yōgyamaina) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Turkish: kabul edilebilir — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Turkish: uygun — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Turkish: makbul — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Ukrainian: прийня́тний (pryjnjátnyj) — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Welsh: cymeradwy — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
  • Welsh: derbyniol — capable, worthy or sure of being accepted
Real reading context

acceptable in complete knowledge articles