Lovable

How to spell lovable

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce lovable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lovable mean?

1. adjectiveInspiring or deserving affection; easy to love.

Lovable in a sentence

• The puppy was so lovable that the whole family fell for it at once.

• His clumsy but lovable personality won over every new colleague.

Where does lovable come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the native English noun and verb 'love', which descends from the Old English 'lufu', meaning affection or fondness, plus the productive suffix '-able'. That suffix arrived from Latin '-abilis', meaning 'capable of' or 'worthy of', and reached English largely through Old French; over time English speakers attached it freely to native words as well as borrowed ones. So 'lovable' literally means 'worthy of being loved', and it appears in English from around the 1300s. The spelling trap lies in the silent 'e' of 'love': when '-able' is added, that 'e' is normally dropped, giving 'lovable', although the variant 'loveable' that keeps the 'e' has long been accepted, especially in Britain. The same drop-the-e pattern shows up in relatives such as 'usable' and 'movable'.

How the word is built

• love (root)
• -able (capable of, worthy of)