amenity
Americannoun
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amenities
plural
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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
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(often plural) a useful or pleasant facility or service
a swimming pool was just one of the amenities
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the fact or condition of being pleasant or agreeable
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(usually plural) a social courtesy or pleasantry
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
"Then a lifetime of pylons impacting on their environment, agriculture, tourism, property values, physical and visual amenity to name a few," she added.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Plus, Anthropic files to go public, and the new luxury amenity is longevity services.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
There are classic amenities such as a grill and hot tub, but the biggest amenity is proximity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 21, 2025
The amenity fits perfectly with the “cozy vibes” she had always wanted in the dwelling.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 16, 2025
The unit’s only amenity was the entertainment console—a large, flat touchscreen built into the wall.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
As if those amenities weren’t enough to keep the Hollywood star entertained, the property also features its own ski slope, as well as a tennis court.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026
To do so, the 51-year-old Dempsey has to figure out how to maintain the airline’s low-cost edge while embracing amenities that would have once been unthinkable for a budget carrier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
Businesses routinely face the question of how to divide the price of a product or service between admission and the amenities that come with it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
It boasts of amenities including a resort-style pool, hot tub, cold plunge, tennis court and 5,000-bottle wine cellar.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
The barest amenities, on which we rely for opening conversations—Hello, are you there?, from us, followed by Yes, hello, from them—will take two hundred years at least.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
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.
