Acceptable

//əkˈsɛp.tə.bəl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Someone or something that is acceptable.

    "The whole range of the knowable is divided into two classes, the acceptable and the avoidable. The acceptables are: Śiva, Śakti, Vidyesa, Mantra, Mantreśvara and the Jivas."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Worthy, decent, sure of being accepted or received with at least moderate pleasure.

    "We need to find an acceptable present for Jeff."

  2. 2
    Barely worthy, less than excellent; passable.

    "The designs were acceptable, but they were nothing special either."

Adjective
  1. 1
    worthy of acceptance or satisfactory wordnet
  2. 2
    adequate for the purpose wordnet
  3. 3
    meeting requirements wordnet
  4. 4
    judged to be in conformity with approved usage wordnet

Example

More examples

"Doing math is the only socially acceptable way to masturbate in public."

Etymology

From Middle English acceptable, from Old French acceptable, from Late Latin acceptābilis (“worthy of acceptance”). Morphologically accept + -able.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.