acceptable

What it means

1. Capable, worthy, or sure of being accepted or received with pleasure; welcome; gratifying; pleasing to a receiver.

   We need to find an acceptable present for Jeff.

   3 more examples

   '[…] The other day, as soon as we came to town, aware that money could not be very plenty with us just now, she put bank-notes into Fanny's hands to the amount of two hundred pounds. And extremely acceptable it is, for we must live at a great expense while we are here.'

   1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

   I think if post commanders of the unchaplained posts could employ acceptable clergymen […] then the needs might be met.

   1883, United States. War Department, Annual Reports of the War Department, volume 1, page 128

   A site that carried [sexually explicit] material, but that gated it off from children through credit cards or other mechanisms to verify the age of the user, would have an acceptable defense under the act.

   1999 February 1, Pamela Mendels, “Judge Delays Online Pornography Law”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 06 Oct 2022

   Synonyms: agreeable, all right, amazing, as fine as Dick's hatband, awesome, beatific, bene, blissful · Antonyms: inacceptable, rejectable, unacceptable

2. Barely worthy, less than excellent; passable.

   The designs were acceptable, but they were nothing special either.

   Synonyms: adequate, all right, average, close enough, close enough for government work, close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades, decent, favoursome · Antonyms: inacceptable, unacceptable

In a sentence

We need to find an acceptable present for Jeff.

Where it comes from

1. Late Latinacceptābilis“worthy of acceptance”
2. Middle Frenchacceptable
3. Middle Englishacceptable
4. Englishacceptable

From Middle English acceptable, from Anglo-Norman and Middle French acceptable, from Late Latin acceptābilis (“worthy of acceptance”). Morphologically accept + -able.