lovable

English

Alternative forms

loveable

Etymology

From Middle English lovable, loveable, luffeabill, lufabul, equivalent to love +‎ -able.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈlʌvəbəl/
Audio (Southern England): (file)

Adjective

lovable (comparative more lovable or lovabler, superlative most lovable or lovablest)

Inspiring or deserving love or affection; adorable or cute.
- 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:
  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.
- 1908 July 6, S[amuel] L[anghorne] Clemens, “A Letter from Mark Twain: Innocence at Home”, in Collier’s, volume XLI, number 20, New York, N.Y.: P[eter] F[enelon] Collier & Son, published 8 August 1908, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 22, column 2:
  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.
  Transcription: 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.
- 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:
  “[…] 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. […]”
- 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:
  The wonder of the women of the world together, moya! And the lovablest Lima since Ineen MacCormick MacCoort MacConn O’Puckins MacKundred.
- 2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC‎^[1]:
  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.
- 2023 January 27, Patrick Connolly, “Meet the Orlando rescue dogs playing in Puppy Bowl XIX”, in Orlando Sentinel‎^[2]:
  At 20 pounds, Jimmy Kibble is a lovable, beautiful pomsky — a cross between a Pomeranian and a husky. But he has a lot of energy.