able

Meanings

Adjective

• Easy to use.
• Suitable; competent.
• Liable to.
• Having the necessary powers or the needed resources to accomplish a task.
• Free from constraints preventing completion of task; permitted to; not prevented from.
• Having the physical strength; robust; healthy.
• Rich; well-to-do.
• Gifted with skill, intelligence, knowledge, or competence.
• Legally qualified or competent.
• Capable of performing all the requisite duties; as an able seaman.

Verb

• To make ready.
• To make capable; to enable.
• To dress.
• To give power to; to reinforce; to confirm.
• To vouch for; to guarantee.

Noun

• in Navy Phonetic Alphabet.

Origin

• From Middle English able, from Old Northern French able, variant of Old French abile, habile, from Latin habilis, from habeō + -ibilis.
• From Middle English ablen, from Middle English able (adjective).
• From the first letter of the word. Suggested in the 1916 United States Army Signal Book to distinguish the letter when communicating via telephone, and later adopted in other radio and telephone signal standards.