amenity
Americannoun
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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:
Working with her sister, Venus, who owns an interior design firm, Williams turned the property into her dream dwelling, complete with every luxurious amenity imaginable, including—of course—a private trophy room.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 8, 2026
With every new amenity, it’s sending rivals a message: good luck catching up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026
The amenity fits perfectly with the “cozy vibes” she had always wanted in the dwelling.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 16, 2025
"It was supposed to be for public amenity, they were going to reinstate all the rights of way and agricultural use," said Chris Austin, who lives nearby.
From BBC ● Dec. 3, 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
Frontier is rolling out more amenities, including first-class seats, as budget airlines struggle with rising costs and stronger competition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Cities should build and preserve libraries, parks, playgrounds, walkable streets and mixed-use spaces as amenities and places where low-stakes contact can happen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Changes included a longer project timeline, uncertainty over whether the developers could provide community amenities such as a pool and less profitable ground lease terms, according to the district.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
"They sold houses on the basis of schools, shops and amenities coming in. Essentially we have the opposite problem to nimbyism in that we are desperate for anything in our backyard."
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 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.
