habitable
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- habitability noun
- habitableness noun
- habitably adverb
- nonhabitability noun
- nonhabitable adjective
- nonhabitableness noun
- nonhabitably adverb
- unhabitable adjective
- unhabitableness noun
- unhabitably adverb
Etymology
Origin of habitable
1350–1400; Middle English habitābilis, equivalent to habitā ( re ) to inhabit ( habitat ) + -bilis -ble; replacing Middle English abitable < Middle French
Explanation
Something habitable is appropriate to live in. If you're having the wood floors of your house refinished, it might not be habitable until they've completely dried. Earth is a habitable planet: Mars isn't. In other words, humans can live comfortably on Earth, since its atmosphere has air we can breathe and temperatures we can tolerate. While many of us live in perfectly habitable homes and cities, there are also people whose living situations wouldn't be considered habitable by most of us. In Old French, habitable means "suitable for human dwelling," from the Latin habitare, "to inhabit."
Vocabulary lists containing habitable
Canada - Introductory
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Canada - Middle School and High School
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Farewell to Manzanar
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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.
We say the amount of the population that has died and what parts of the country and world are habitable.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 30, 2026
They also highlighted an additional 24 planets within a more restrictive 3D habitable zone, based on tighter assumptions about how much heat a planet can tolerate before becoming uninhabitable.
From Science Daily • Mar. 25, 2026
The disaster set the stage for lawsuits by fire victims who alleged their homes were filled with toxic contaminants, yet insurers refused to do hygienic testing and properly clean and make them habitable again.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 19, 2026
Canvey Island Foreshore, Essex - a family-favourite sandy beach, the island has only been populated since the 17th Century when the Dutch made the marshlands habitable.
From BBC • Feb. 13, 2026
The Maya heartland, in other words, was a network of artificially habitable terrestrial islands.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
