endurable

American  

[en-door-uh-buhl, -dyoor-] / ɛnˈdʊər ə bəl, -ˈdyʊər- /

adjective

1. capable of being endured; bearable; tolerable.

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Other Word Forms

• endurability
  noun
• endurableness
  noun
• endurably
  adverb
• nonendurable
  adjective
• unendurability
  adjective
• unendurable
  adjective
• unendurableness
  noun
• unendurably
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of endurable

First recorded in 1600–10; endure + -able

Explanation

If you can tolerate something, it's endurable. Getting a cavity filled at the dentist, while not very fun, is still endurable. Use the adjective endurable to describe something that's no fun, but that a person can generally deal with. Standardized tests are endurable, and eating soggy, overcooked broccoli is endurable. A long ride on a stormy sea — as long as the ship doesn't capsize — is also endurable. To endure something is to withstand it — if it's endurable, it can be endured. The word is rooted in the Latin indurare, "to make hard or firm."

Example Sentences

Could a cold plunge be not only endurable but enjoyable?

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025

With victories over the Jacksonville Jaguars and Arizona Cardinals in hand, the 10-plus-hour flight home was no doubt far more endurable than it might have been following a loss or two.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 23, 2017

Perhaps this is what Rothko meant when he told a group of art students that he included in his paintings a measure of hope: ‘‘10 percent to make the tragic concept more endurable.’’

From New York Times • Aug. 23, 2017

Twitter and the connected audience felt like a relief last night, if only because it made watching the Cleveland spectacle so much more endurable, to crack jokes with another community of amateurs.

From The New Yorker • Jul. 20, 2016

“Which pain will be least endurable? The physical, or the mental anguish of having freedom offered if the truth is told, then telling it and being thought a liar.”

From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman