honorable

• honble (obsolete)
• Honorable (honorific)
• (British spelling:) honourable, Honourable (honorific)

From Middle English honourable, from Old French honorable, honurable, from Latin honōrābilis, from honōrō (“I honour”); cognate with Italian onorabile, Spanish honorable. By surface analysis, honor +‎ -able. In this sense, largely displaced Old English ārfæst.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ŏnʹərəbl, ŏnʹrəbl, IPA^(key): /ˈɒnəɹəbl̩/, /ˈɒnɹəbl̩/
• (General American) enPR: ŏnʹərəbl, ŏnʹrəbl, IPA^(key): /ˈɑnəɹəbl̩/, /ˈɑnɹəbl̩/

  • Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: hon‧or‧able, honor‧able

honorable (comparative more honorable, superlative most honorable) (American spelling)

1. Behaving in a manner that shows honor; decent, having integrity.
2. Worthy of respect; respectable.

   Synonyms: noble, venerable

   Antonyms: contemptible, despicable, mean

3. Complying with cultural rules regarding honor; not provoking shame or disgrace.

   That culture considered it no disgrace to be defeated in honorable combat.

4. (politics) A courtesy title, given in Britain and the Commonwealth to a cabinet minister, minister of state, or senator, and in the United States to the president, vice president, congresspeople, state governors and legislators, and mayors.

   Synonyms: (abbreviation) Hon'ble, (abbreviation) Hon.

• Historically used in the United States (early 1900s) in mockery of Japanese and Chinese people (or honorable Japs).

honorable (plural honorables)

1. A politician or other person who bears the title of "honorable".
   • 1959, American Journal of Psychotherapy, volume 13, page 111:

     These included a reception for the Congress participants, given by the city of Barcelona in a 14th century palace, with guards making room for the mayor and other honorables, […]

Borrowed from Latin honōrābilis.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [u.nuˈɾab.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [o.noˈɾab.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [o.noˈɾa.ble]

honorable m or f (masculine and feminine plural honorables)

1. honorable

• honorablement

• “honorable” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “honorable”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “honorable” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “honorable” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Inherited from Old French [Term?], borrowed from Latin honōrābilis.

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /ɔ.nɔ.ʁabl/

• Audio:

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honorable (plural honorables)

1. honorable

• faire amende honorable
• hon.
• très honorable

• honneur

• “honorable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• honorábel

From Latin honōrābilis.

honorable m or f (plural honorables)

1. honorable

• honor
• honra

• “honorable”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2024

Borrowed from Latin honōrābilis. Equivalent to honor +‎ -able.

• IPA^(key): /onoˈɾable/ [o.noˈɾa.β̞le]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: ho‧no‧ra‧ble

honorable m or f (masculine and feminine plural honorables)

1. honorable

   Synonyms: honrado, honesto

• “honorable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28