Honorable

How to spell honorable

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce honorable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does honorable mean?

1. adjectiveDeserving respect or high regard, or behaving with integrity and fairness.

Honorable in a sentence

• Refunding the overcharge was the honorable thing to do.

• She built an honorable reputation over decades of fair dealing.

Where does honorable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun honor, meaning esteem, dignity, or public regard, from which Latin built the adjective honorabilis, 'deserving of honor'. English took it in during the 1300s through Old French honorable, and the early sense was much as it is now: bringing or worthy of respect. For centuries English writers spelled the base noun with a u, following the French honour, and that British spelling honourable survives in the United Kingdom and Canada today. The form honorable, without the u, reflects the deliberate American simplification of -our to -or that Noah Webster championed in the early 1800s, which is why this spelling now reads as the standard American one. The same honor root sits inside honest, honorary, and the courtesy title 'the Honorable', so the spelling trap is simply remembering, in American usage, to drop the u that the eye half expects.

How the word is built

• honor (Latin honor: esteem, public regard)
• -able (worthy of, deserving)

British and American spelling

Honorable is the American spelling. British English spells it honourable.