answerable
Americanadjective
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liable to be asked to give account; responsible.
He is answerable to a committee for all his decisions.
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capable of being answered.
a question answerable by mail.
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proportionate; correlative (usually followed byto ).
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corresponding; suitable (usually followed byto ).
The amount is not answerable to my needs.
adjective
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(postpositive; foll by for or to) responsible or accountable
answerable for someone's safety
answerable to one's boss
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able to be answered
Other Word Forms
- answerability noun
- answerableness noun
- answerably adverb
Etymology
Origin of answerable
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.
“I don’t think the market is going to get the clarity it wants, because it’s not an easily answerable question and it’s not one that can be answered in the near term,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026
They had put their lives on the line to create a democratic republic, answerable to the people and not a king.
From Salon • Nov. 5, 2025
But all of this avoids the challenges of a magical realism where questions about the purpose of poetry, theater, political resistance, life and legacy are answerable only by dying.
From Los Angeles Times • May 9, 2025
He unlawfully repurposed and modified—colloquially, hacked—OPM using this unprecedented access to treat government workers as nonplayer characters, answerable to him above their agencies.
From Slate • Feb. 24, 2025
‘Since when has the Lord of Gondor been answerable to thee?’ said Denethor.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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.
