amenity
Americannoun
plural
amenities-
an agreeable way or manner; courtesy; civility.
the graceful amenities of society.
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any feature that provides comfort, convenience, or pleasure.
The house has a swimming pool, two fireplaces, and other amenities.
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the quality of being pleasing or agreeable in situation, prospect, disposition, etc.; pleasantness.
the amenity of the Caribbean climate.
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amenities, lavatory; bathroom: used as a euphemism.
noun
-
(often plural) a useful or pleasant facility or service
a swimming pool was just one of the amenities
-
the fact or condition of being pleasant or agreeable
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(usually plural) a social courtesy or pleasantry
Etymology
Origin of amenity
1400–50; late Middle English amenite < Anglo-French < Latin amoenitās, equivalent to amoen ( us ) pleasing + -itās -ity
Explanation
Like built-in GPS, seat warmers and four-wheel drive, an amenity is a feature that contributes to comfort or value. Or in another sense, it's the overall pleasantness that results from all those cool features. Declared the American novelist Edith Wharton, “I despair of the Republic! Such dreariness, such whining sallow women, such utter absence of the amenities, such crass food, crass manners, crass landscape! What a horror it is for a whole nation to be developing without the sense of beauty, and eating bananas for breakfast.” As you can see, people throughout time have gotten cranky when they’ve felt their amenities to be lacking.
Vocabulary lists containing amenity
The Namesake
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ami, amor
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Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Enfield oak was worth £1m, according to tree valuer Russell Miller, who made his estimate using the Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees system.
From BBC • Apr. 16, 2025
Megan Lawson, a researcher at Bozeman-based Headwaters Economics, co-authored the May report “The Amenity Trap: How high-amenity communities can avoid being loved to death.”
From Seattle Times • Jun. 16, 2023
Named this year's Civic Amenity Site of the Year by Let's Recycle, a recent survey by Buckinghamshire Council found the 12-bay centre scored 100% in customer satisfaction.
From BBC • May 29, 2023
"She has been a bit late maturing," Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to the filly's owner, Prince Khalid Abdullah, said after her three-and-a-half length success in the Listed Blade Amenity Fillies' Stakes.
From The Guardian • May 17, 2013
When bitterness, distrust, and awe Dissolve, like ice in winter's thaw, Beneath the genial touches of Amenity, good will, and love.
From Poems Vol. IV by Howard, Hattie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
