Commendable

How to spell commendable

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce commendable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does commendable mean?

1. adjectiveDeserving praise or approval.

Commendable in a sentence

• The team showed commendable patience during the long negotiation.

• Her commendable effort to repay the debt early impressed the lender.

Where does commendable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb commendare, meaning 'to entrust, commit to one's care', and by extension 'to praise'. That verb was built from the intensive prefix com- joined to mandare, 'to entrust' or 'to commit', which itself combined manus 'hand' with dare 'to give', literally the idea of giving something into another's hand. The sense softened over time from formally entrusting something to simply speaking well of it, so that to commend came to mean to praise. English took the word in through Old French during the late medieval period, and the adjective commendable, 'worthy of praise', was in use by the 1400s. The same Latin root sits inside the everyday words 'mandate' and 'recommend', and noticing that family helps explain the spelling: it is one m at the root but a doubled m from the prefix com-, with the plain -able ending that means 'able to be' or 'worthy of'.

How the word is built

• com- (intensive, from Latin)
• mend (from mandare: to entrust, commit)
• -able (worthy of)