amenable
Americanadjective
-
ready or willing to answer, act, agree, or yield; open to influence, persuasion, or advice; agreeable; submissive; tractable.
an amenable servant.
- Synonyms:
- easy, docile, manageable
- Antonyms:
- recalcitrant, stubborn
-
liable to be called to account; answerable; legally responsible.
You are amenable for this debt.
-
capable of or agreeable to being tested, tried, analyzed, etc.
- Synonyms:
- responsible, accountable
adjective
-
open or susceptible to suggestion; likely to listen, cooperate, etc
-
accountable for behaviour to some authority; answerable
-
capable of being or liable to be tested, judged, etc
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of amenable
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Anglo-French, equivalent to Middle French amen(er) “to lead to” ( a- a- 5 + mener, from Late Latin mināre “to push, impel,” from Latin minārī “to threaten”) + -able -able
Explanation
If your friends want to try sky diving and you're amenable to the idea, sounds like you're going to be jumping out of a plane. If a person or thing is amenable to something, they are ready, willing, or responsive. Note that amenable is often followed by the preposition to, which makes amenable mean "able to be controlled or affected by something," as in: "They are usually amenable to our wishes" or "Her heart condition is not amenable to treatment." An amenable personality is open to influence or control and is willing to agree or yield.
Vocabulary lists containing amenable
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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.
If he wants to live large, there are more amenable careers than being a high-level bureaucrat tasked with keeping the public safe from crime.
From Salon • Apr. 24, 2026
The firm’s new funding comes amid a wave of venture-capital investment in U.S. defense-technology startups, as the Pentagon has in recent years grown increasingly amenable to Silicon Valley’s pitches.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
De Zerbi is also believed to be amenable to the idea.
From BBC • Mar. 24, 2026
Learning that he “was not amenable to removal,” the agents dropped him off at a coffee shop without informing his attorneys or family.
From Slate • Mar. 19, 2026
If we think of God as a clockmaker, then we can be confident that he will have made a world amenable to experimental enquiry.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
