Pleasurable

How to spell pleasurable

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce pleasurable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pleasurable mean?

1. adjectiveGiving a feeling of enjoyment or satisfaction.

Pleasurable in a sentence

• The spa weekend was a thoroughly pleasurable break from work.

• A warm bath at the end of the day is deeply pleasurable.

Where does pleasurable come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on 'pleasure' plus the adjective ending '-able', and pleasure itself reaches back to the Latin verb placere, which meant 'to please' or 'to be agreeable'. That Latin verb passed into Old French as plaisir, originally an infinitive 'to please' that came to be used as a noun for the feeling of enjoyment, and English borrowed it in the 1300s, gradually respelling the ending toward the more familiar '-ure'. The adjective 'pleasurable' appears a little later, formed on English soil by adding '-able' to give the sense 'capable of giving enjoyment'. The same placere root still surfaces in 'please', 'pleasant', and 'placid', all of which carry that core idea of being agreeable. The chief spelling trap is the soft middle: writers must remember the 's' rather than a 'z', the silent finishing of '-sure', and the '-able' ending kept whole from the noun.

How the word is built

• pleasure (from Old French plaisir: to please)
• -able (adjective suffix: able to give)