Favorable

How to spell favorable

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce favorable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does favorable mean?

1. adjectiveExpressing approval, or providing advantage and conditions that help something succeed.

Favorable in a sentence

• The bank offered a favorable interest rate on the new mortgage.

• The committee gave a favorable review of her proposal.

Where does favorable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin favorabilis, meaning 'popular' or 'worthy of goodwill', which was built on the noun favor, literally 'goodwill, friendly disposition, or support'. The Latin favor in turn came from the verb favere, meaning 'to be kind to' or 'to show favour toward'. English took the word in through Old French favorable during the late Middle Ages, around the 1400s, keeping the sense of something that helps or works in one's interest. The American spelling drops the 'u' that British and Canadian writers keep in 'favourable', a difference that goes back to deliberate nineteenth-century simplifications of the older French-influenced spelling; the same root still sits inside everyday words like 'favourite' and 'favouritism'. The trap for the speller is the unstressed middle, where the vowels collapse into a soft schwa and tempt the writer to drop or swap a letter.

How the word is built

• favor (from Latin favor: goodwill, support)
• -able (capable of, tending toward)

British and American spelling

Favorable is the American spelling. British English spells it favourable.