Honourable
adj, noun ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 UK standard spelling of honorable.
"So she invites her father and sister to a second day's dinner (if those sides, or ontrys, as she calls 'em, weren't served yesterday, I'm d—d), and to meet City folks and littery men, and keeps the Earls and the Ladies, and the Honourables to herself."
- 1 UK standard spelling of honorable.
"It was aptly said by Newton that "whatever is not deduced from facts must be regarded as hypothesis," but hypothesis appears to us a title too honourable for the crude guessings to which we allude."
- 2 Alternative letter-case form of honourable. alt-of
- 1 worthy of being honored; entitled to honor and respect wordnet
- 2 adhering to ethical and moral principles wordnet
Example
More examples"How much more so for my father, the honourable Mr Jia, who is generous and chivalrous, anxious to help those in difficulty, deals with people’s problems, and helps people marry off their daughters and raise their sons; examples of these cannot be counted on one’s fingers. He spends money like dirt, much of it for other people."
Etymology
From Middle English honourable, from Old French honorable, honurable, from Latin honōrābilis, from honōrō (“I honour”); cognate with Italian onorabile, Spanish honorable. By surface analysis, honour + -able. In this sense, largely displaced Old English ārfæst.
Related phrases
More for "honourable"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.