respectable

From respect + -able.

• (US) IPA^(key): [ɹɪˈspɛk.tə.bl̩]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

respectable (comparative more respectable, superlative most respectable)

1. Deserving respect.

   Synonyms: admirable, laudable, venerable; see also Thesaurus:respectable

   His accomplishments, morals, loyalty, and stature make him a respectable person.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. In this way all respectable burgesses, down to fifty years ago, spent their evenings.

2. Decent; satisfactory.

   Turn up to the interview wearing something respectable.  She plays a respectable game of chess.  He got a respectable B+ on his last exam.

3. Moderately well-to-do.

• honorable
• savory

• contemptible
• despicable
• disrespectable
• unrespectable

• respectability
• respectabilize
• respectably

respectable (plural respectables)

1. A person who is respectable.
   • 1872, Thomas Cooper, The Life of Thomas Cooper, page 221:

     They forced their way into the meetings called by the respectables; and the respectables disappeared. It was of their own respectable good pleasure that they withdrew.

   • 1978 February 11, Michael Bronski, “The Gayest Parade In Town”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 31, page 13:

     The tensions between the "respectables" and the "gay spoilers"

   • 2014, Mitchell Duneier, Philip Kasinitz, Alexandra Murphy, The Urban Ethnography Reader, page 38:

     The “respectables”, then, impute to themselves an absence of such character blemishes, or stated in more positive terms, an allegiance to American mainstream morality.

• respectful
• respective

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [rəs.pəkˈtab.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [res.pekˈta.ble]

respectable m or f (masculine and feminine plural respectables)

1. respectable

• respectabilitat

• respectar

• “respectable”, 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
• “respectable”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “respectable” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “respectable”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

From respect +‎ -able.

• IPA^(key): /ʁɛs.pɛk.tabl/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Homophone: respectables
• Hyphenation: res‧pec‧table

respectable (plural respectables)

1. respectable

• respectablement

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

• respectábel

respectable m or f (plural respectables)

1. respectable

• respectabilidade

• respectar

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