Abilities

How to spell abilities

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce abilities

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does abilities mean?

1. nounThe skills, talents, or capacities a person possesses to do things.

Abilities in a sentence

• The new manager quickly recognised the team's abilities and assigned tasks to match.

• Her language abilities made her the obvious choice for the overseas role.

Where does abilities come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the plural of 'ability', which entered English in the late 1300s by way of Old French 'ablete' and ultimately from the Latin 'habilitas', meaning 'aptitude' or 'fitness'. That noun was built on 'habilis', which literally meant 'easy to hold or handle', from the verb 'habere', meaning 'to have or hold'. The same 'habere' root sits behind everyday words such as 'habit' and 'inhabit', all carrying a faint sense of holding or possessing. The original Latin 'h' was lost as the word passed through French, which is why we write 'ability' rather than 'hability', and the spelling settled with a single 'l' and the '-ity' ending. The plural simply changes the final 'y' to 'i' before adding '-es', following the regular English rule for nouns ending in a consonant plus 'y'.

How the word is built

• abil- (from Latin habilis: able, easy to handle)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix)
• -es (plural)