Standard Lemma guide

personable

adj · 5 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.

  • /ˈpɜːsn̩əbl/
  • /ˈpɜːs(ə)nəbəl/
  • Received-Pronunciation: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈpɜɹs(ə)nəb(ə)l/
  • CMU ARPABET: P ER1 S AH0 N AH0 B AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of a person: having a pleasing appearance; attractive; handsome.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: good-looking, attractive, beauteous, beautifool, beautiful, beautimous, bona vardering, bonnie, breathtaking, captivating, comely, cute, divine, esculent, exquisite, fair, fetching, fine-looking, good enough to eat, handsome, heavenly, knockout, lovely, lovesome, lustrious, nice, nice-looking, personable, pretty, prettiful, pulchritudinous, shapely, sheen, sightly, stunning, swanlike, well-favoured, winsome

Antonyms: unattractive, unpersonable, bad, beat, butters, butt-ugly, clapped, coyote ugly, deform, fuckfaced, fugly, hideous, homely, like the back end of a bus, plug-ugly, repulsive, ugly, ugly as sin, uncomely, unsightly, unpretty

2

adj

Meaning 2

Of a person: having a pleasant manner; amiable, friendly.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: affable, agreeable, likeable, affectionate, amiable, bonhomous, amicable, chummy, companionable, congenial, cordial, facile, familiar, friendly, genial, hospitable, matey, personable, simpatico, welcoming

Antonyms: unpersonable, adverse, antagonistic, conflicting, contentious, counteracting, hostile, incompatible, inharmonious, inimical, irreconcilable, opposed, repugnant, unbefriending, unfriendly, unharmonious, unpartial

3

adj

Meaning 3

Synonym of personal (“done in person, without an intermediary”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete, rare

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: personal

Antonyms: none provided

4

adj

Meaning 4

Being a legal person and thus able to maintain a plea in court, or to hold some property or right.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

Topics: law

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

adjective satellite

Meaning 5

(of persons) pleasant in appearance and personality

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Late Middle English personable, personabil (“having a pleasing appearance, handsome”), and then from both of the following: * For sense 1 (“having a pleasing appearance”) and sense 2 (“having a pleasant manner”) (these senses are not found in Old French or Medieval Latin), probably from person, personne, persoun (“individual, person”) + -āble (suffix meaning ‘able or worthy to be’ forming adjectives). * For sense 3.1 (“synonym of personal”) and sense 3.2 (“being a legal person”), from Middle French personable and Old French personable, and from their etymon Medieval Latin personābilis (“personal”), possibly from Medieval Latin persōna (“person”) + Latin -ābilis (suffix meaning ‘able or worthy to be’). By surface analysis, person + -able (suffix meaning ‘relevant or suitable to’).

Across languages

Translations

19 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: представителен (predstavitelen) — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Dutch: aantrekkelijk — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Finnish: miellyttävä — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Finnish: mukava — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • German: ansehnlich — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • German: freundlich — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • German: sympathisch — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • German: von angenehmer Erscheinung — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Irish: dathúil — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Irish: pearsanta — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Irish: pearsantach — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Norwegian: elskverdig, godlynt, vennlig — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Polish: przyjazny — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Polish: przyjemny — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Polish: sympatyczny — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Russian: приятный (prijatnyj) — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Spanish: amable — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Spanish: simpatico — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly
  • Swedish: trevlig — of a person: having a pleasant manner — see also amiable, friendly