Words / A / General

affable

/ˈafəbl/

B2CEFR level
40/100Rarity: uncommon
LiteraryRegister

General adjective

Warmly friendly, good-natured and easy to talk to.

The affable landlord greeted every regular by name and remembered their usual order.

Similar: genial, amiable, cordial

Origin: From Latin affabilis 'easy to speak to', from ad- 'to' + fari 'to speak'.

Topic: friendliness in General English

Business adjective

Easy to talk to and pleasantly good-natured.

An affable presence in the corridors, she nonetheless ran a tight ship behind closed doors.

Similar: genial, amiable, congenial

Topic: Leadership & management in Business English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

Get words like affable on your lock screen, a few a day, with review that makes them stick.

Download on the App Store Lexfall puts a new word on your home and lock screen through widgets, so you learn without opening an app. Free to download. After a free trial, a subscription unlocks every field. Built for iPhone, iOS 15.1 or later.
QR code that opens Lexfall on the App Store
On a computer?Scan with your iPhone camera.