honorable

• honble (obsolete)
• Honorable (honorific)
• (British spelling:) honourable, Honourable (honorific)

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, honor +‎ -able. In this sense, largely displaced Old English ārfæst.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ŏnʹərəbl, ŏnʹrəbl, IPA^(key): /ˈɒnəɹəbl̩/, /ˈɒnɹəbl̩/
• (General American) enPR: ŏnʹərəbl, ŏnʹrəbl, IPA^(key): /ˈɑnəɹəbl̩/, /ˈɑnɹəbl̩/

  • Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: hon‧or‧able, honor‧able

honorable (comparative more honorable, superlative most honorable) (American spelling)

1. Behaving in a manner that shows honor; decent, having integrity.
2. Worthy of respect; respectable.

   Synonyms: estimable, noble, venerable; see also Thesaurus:respectable

   Antonyms: contemptible, despicable, mean

   • 1887, The Popular Science Monthly, volume 31, page 629:

     In confinement ladies are attended, not by the ordinary doctors, but by women especially devoted to the calling, who regard their profession as honorable and humanitary.

3. Complying with cultural rules regarding honor; not provoking shame or disgrace.

   That culture considered it no disgrace to be defeated in honorable combat.

   • 1943, Korean Research Bulletin, volumes 1-2, page 20:

     Luxury was abolished. People lived in honorable marriage. All the women were chaste, faithful, and far from wantoners.

4. (politics) A courtesy title, given in Britain and the Commonwealth to a cabinet minister, minister of state, or senator, and in the United States to the president, vice president, congresspeople, state governors and legislators, and mayors.

   Synonyms: (abbreviation) Hon'ble, (abbreviation) Hon.

   • 1872, Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, The Unkind Word, and Other Stories, page 145:

     Uncheered by friends, unhissed by foes, the honorable member blandly continued his speech […]

• Historically used in the United States (early 1900s) in mockery of Japanese and Chinese people (or honorable Japs).

honorable (plural honorables)

1. A politician or other person who bears the title of "honorable".
   • 1959, American Journal of Psychotherapy, volume 13, page 111:

     These included a reception for the Congress participants, given by the city of Barcelona in a 14th century palace, with guards making room for the mayor and other honorables, […]

Borrowed from Latin honōrābilis.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [u.nuˈɾab.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [o.noˈɾab.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [o.noˈɾa.ble]

• Audio (Barcelona):

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honorable m or f (masculine and feminine plural honorables)

1. honorable

• honorablement

• “honorable”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “honorable”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “honorable” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “honorable” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Inherited from Old French honorable, honurable, borrowed from Latin honōrābilis.

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /ɔ.nɔ.ʁabl/

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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honorable (plural honorables)

1. honorable

• faire amende honorable
• hon.
• très honorable

• honneur

• “honorable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• honorábel

From Latin honōrābilis.

honorable m or f (plural honorables)

1. honorable

• honor
• honra

• “honorable”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026

Borrowed from Latin honōrābilis. Equivalent to honor +‎ -able.

• IPA^(key): /onoˈɾable/ [o.noˈɾa.β̞le]

• Audio (Colombia):

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• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: ho‧no‧ra‧ble

honorable m or f (masculine and feminine plural honorables)

1. honorable

   Synonyms: honrado, honesto

• “honorable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025