endurable

American  

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

adjective

1. capable of being endured; bearable; tolerable.

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Other Word Forms

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

It made everything feel temporary and endurable, and it allowed me to dream in a way.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 16, 2023

Clearly, this verbiage is bad on purpose — which doesn’t make it any less endurable.

From New York Times • Dec. 14, 2022

So how do you know when a gross but endurable situation requires medical intervention?

From Salon • May 16, 2021

Misery colored by the greens and blues in my mother’s voice took all of the grief out of the words and left me with a conviction that pain was not only endurable, it was sweet.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison