Lovable Meaning
/ˈlʌvəbəl/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjInspiring or deserving love or affection; adorable or cute.
Sentence Examples
He is a man with a lovable character.
He is a lovable person.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The little kitten was so ____ that everyone wanted to adopt it.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The new puppy was very ____ and immediately became a much-loved member of the family this week.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English lovable, loveable, luffeabill, lufabul, equivalent to love + -able.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"In short, the old town—the lovablest, old-timiest, easy-goingest old town that ever was—sits there by the River, hugging its traditions, and hoarding its stories, of which it has enough to make a new Thousand and One Nights."
— 1895, M[ollie] E[velyn] M[oore] Davis, “Prologue. The Town and the River.”, in Under the Man-Fig, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, →OCLC, page 6:
"Hon. Collier Weekly which furnish Japanese Schoolboy to public not often enough, when is his book coming out? […] That Boy is the dearest & sweetest & frankest & wisest & funniest & delightfulest & lovablest creation that has been added to our literature for a long time."
— Benjamin Griffin, Harriet Elinor Smith, editors (2015), “Explanatory Notes”, in Autobiography of Mark Twain (The Mark Twain Papers), volume 3, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 599
"“[…] You’ll let Jims come here often, won’t you? I love him dearly.” / “No doubt you do, miss, for a lovabler child I never did see.[…]”"
— 1921, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “Mr. Hyde Goes to His Own Place and Susan Takes a Honeymoon”, in Rilla of Ingleside, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →OCLC, page 359:
"The wonder of the women of the world together, moya! And the lovablest Lima since Ineen MacCormick MacCoort MacConn O’Puckins MacKundred."
— 1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part II, pages 375–376:
"In A League of Their Own (1992), as the shouty baseball coach to an all-girls team, he's once again a curmudgeonly but lovable mentor figure."
— 2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The little kitten was so ____ that everyone wanted to adopt it.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The new puppy was very ____ and immediately became a much-loved member of the family this week.