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
Studying these worlds could reveal whether a planet must remain continuously within the habitable zone or if it can move in and out while still maintaining conditions suitable for life.
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
At the same time, there is roughly a 50-50 chance that it actually orbits beyond the habitable zone altogether.
From Science Daily • Feb. 12, 2026
He had confirmed Plutarch’s theory and, whether he liked it or not, he had reopened the question of the existence of other habitable worlds.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
