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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Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet
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ami, amor
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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.
A row of seats turns into the economy version of a lie-flat bed, except with stuffies for kids instead of fancy amenity kits with designer skin care.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026
The amenity fits perfectly with the “cozy vibes” she had always wanted in the dwelling.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 16, 2025
I was up almost every hour the first night and a few times the second, even with ear plugs from one of those Delta Air Lines in-flight amenity kits and Benadryl.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 27, 2025
He is seeking damages for "distress, harassment and loss of amenity not exceeding £10,000" as well as interest.
From BBC • Oct. 16, 2025
But the biggest amenity of all was the free lunch that almost every saloon offered in order to lure customers and increase the sale of beer.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
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.
