1 ~ to do sth (used as a modal verb) to have the skill, intelligence, opportunity, etc. needed to do sth:
You must be able to speak French for this job. * A viral illness left her barely able to walk. * I didn't feel able to disagree with him. * Will you be able to come?
OPPUNABLE -< CAN
2 (abler ) intelligent; good at sth:
the ablest student in the class * We aim to help the less able in society to lead an independent life.
seealsoABLY
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WORDFAMILY
able adj. (=/= unable)
ability n. (=/= inability)
disabled adj.
disability n.
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-able (BrE also -ible) suffix (in adjectives)
1 that can or must be:
calculable * taxable
2 having the quality of:
fashionable * comfortable * changeable
-ability, -ibility (in nouns):
capability * responsibility
-ably, -ibly (in adverbs):
noticeably * incredibly
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for able is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is able a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, able is tagged as adjective.
Does able appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — able appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
