Liable

//ˈlaɪ̯əbəl// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable.

    "The surety is liable for the debt of his principal."

  2. 2
    Subject; susceptible; prone.

    "This crime is liable to imprisonment for life."

  3. 3
    Exposed to a certain contingency or causality, more or less probable.

    "Electronic devices are liable to malfunction when exposed to extreme heat."

  4. 4
    Likely. predicative

    "Someone is liable to slip on your icy sidewalk."

Adjective
  1. 1
    at risk of or subject to experiencing something usually unpleasant wordnet
  2. 2
    held legally responsible wordnet
  3. 3
    (often followed by ‘to’) likely to be affected with wordnet
  4. 4
    subject to legal action wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
likelyresponsibleaccountableactionableamenableanswerable

Example

More examples

"In a similar situation, the company was held liable."

Etymology

From Old French lier (“to bind”), from Latin ligare (“to bind, to tie”).

More for "liable"

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Related Topic Clusters

Legal Writing Vocabulary

Essential terms for contracts, agreements, and plain-language legal communication.

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