habitable
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of habitable
1350–1400; Middle English habitābilis, equivalent to habitā ( re ) to inhabit ( see 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.
Astronomers have reached a major turning point in the search for life beyond Earth by detecting an atmosphere around a rocky, Earth-like planet located in another star's habitable zone.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
Researchers have found the first atmosphere surrounding an Earth-like, rocky planet orbiting within the habitable zone of a distant star.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
A presidential commission to determine how habitable buildings are has been organizing workshops to prepare engineers and architects to inspect buildings damaged by the earthquakes.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
"It shows that an area that we now think is really uninhabitable was once actually very habitable and had this huge cast of characters living on it," explained Barrett.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
Over the following centuries their descendants colonized virtually every habitable scrap of land in the Pacific.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
