Dictionary

lovable en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈlʌvəbəl/

Etymology

From Middle English lovable, loveable, luffeabill, lufabul, equivalent to love + -able.

Meanings

1. Inspiring or deserving love or affection; adorable or cute.
   • In A League of Their Own (1992), as the shouty baseball coach to an all-girls team, he's once again a curmudgeonly but lovable mentor figure. 2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC:
   • Hon. Collier Weekly which furnish Japanese Schoolboy to public not often enough, when is his book coming out? […] That Boy is the dearest & sweetest & frankest & wisest & funniest & delightfulest & lovablest creation that has been added to our literature for a long time. Benjamin Griffin, Harriet Elinor Smith, editors (2015), “Explanatory Notes”, in Autobiography of Mark Twain (The Mark Twain Papers), volume 3, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 599
   • In short, the old town—the lovablest, old-timiest, easy-goingest old town that ever was—sits there by the River, hugging its traditions, and hoarding its stories, of which it has enough to make a new Thousand and One Nights. 1895, M[ollie] E[velyn] M[oore] Davis, “Prologue. The Town and the River.”, in Under the Man-Fig, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, →OCLC, page 6:
   • At 20 pounds, Jimmy Kibble is a lovable, beautiful pomsky — a cross between a Pomeranian and a husky. But he has a lot of energy. 2023 January 27, Patrick Connolly, “Meet the Orlando rescue dogs playing in Puppy Bowl XIX”, in Orlando Sentinel:
   • The wonder of the women of the world together, moya! And the lovablest Lima since Ineen MacCormick MacCoort MacConn O’Puckins MacKundred. 1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part II, pages 375–376:
   • “[…] You’ll let Jims come here often, won’t you? I love him dearly.” / “No doubt you do, miss, for a lovabler child I never did see.[…]” 1921, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “Mr. Hyde Goes to His Own Place and Susan Takes a Honeymoon”, in Rilla of Ingleside, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →OCLC, page 359:

Forms

Deriveds

unlovable · lovableness · lovably

Translations (39)

enm lovable (inspiring love) · ru ми́лый (inspiring love) · vi đáng yêu (inspiring love) · it adorabile (inspiring love) · tr sevilen (inspiring love) · vi dễ thương (inspiring love) · ga geanúil (inspiring love) · hu szerethető (inspiring love) · enm lovesom (inspiring love) · mi mateoha (inspiring love) · ja 愛らしい (inspiring love) · pt amável (inspiring love) · bg симпатичен (inspiring love) · de liebenswert (inspiring love) · fi herttainen (inspiring love) · pdt leeftolich (inspiring love) · cmn 可愛 /可爱 (inspiring love) · fr adorable (inspiring love) · sv älskvärd (inspiring love) · de reizend (inspiring love) · bg обичен (inspiring love) · gl amable (inspiring love) · la amābilis (inspiring love) · fr aimable (inspiring love) · ca amable (inspiring love) · nl beminnelijk (inspiring love) · ga grámhar (inspiring love) · hu kedves (inspiring love) · es adorable (inspiring love) · eo aminda (inspiring love) · es amable (inspiring love) · el αξιαγάπητος (inspiring love) · hu szeretetre méltó (inspiring love) · hu aranyos (inspiring love) · da elskverdig (inspiring love) · it amabile (inspiring love) · hu szeretni való (inspiring love) · cs líbezný (inspiring love) · fi rakastettava (inspiring love)