ABILITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ability mean? 

• ABILITY (noun)
  The noun ABILITY has 2 senses:

1. the quality of being able to perform; a quality that permits or facilitates achievement or accomplishment

2. possession of the qualities (especially mental qualities) required to do something or get something done

  Familiarity information: ABILITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ABILITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of being able to perform; a quality that permits or facilitates achievement or accomplishment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("ability" is a kind of...):

quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)

Attribute:

unable ((usually followed by 'to') not having the necessary means or skill or know-how)

able ((usually followed by 'to') having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ability"):

sensitiveness; sensitivity (the ability to respond to affective changes in your interpersonal environment)

adaptability (the ability to change (or be changed) to fit changed circumstances)

immunocompetence (the ability to develop an immune response following exposure to an antigen)

totipotence; totipotency (the ability of a cell to give rise to unlike cells and so to develop a new organism or part)

capability; capableness (the quality of being capable -- physically or intellectually or legally)

contractility (the capability or quality of shrinking or contracting, especially by muscle fibers and even some other forms of living matter)

physical ability (the ability to perform some physical act; contrasting with mental ability)

penetration (the ability to make way into or through something)

Midas touch (an ability to make and manage large amounts of money)

magical ability; magical power (an ability to perform magic)

interoperability ((computer science) the ability to exchange and use information (usually in a large heterogeneous network made up of several local area networks))

form (an ability to perform well)

competence; competency (the quality of being adequately or well qualified physically and intellectually)

Antonym:

inability (lacking the power to perform)

Derivation:

able ((usually followed by 'to') having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something)

able (having inherent physical or mental ability or capacity)

able (have the skills and qualifications to do things well)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Possession of the qualities (especially mental qualities) required to do something or get something done

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

ability; power

Context example:

danger heightened his powers of discrimination

Hypernyms ("ability" is a kind of...):

cognition; knowledge; noesis (the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning)

Attribute:

able ((usually followed by 'to') having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ability"):

faculty; mental faculty; module (one of the inherent cognitive or perceptual powers of the mind)

superior skill (more than ordinary ability)

hand (ability)

accomplishment; acquirement; acquisition; attainment; skill (an ability that has been acquired by training)

science; skill (ability to produce solutions in some problem domain)

originality (the ability to think and act independently)

creative thinking; creativeness; creativity (the ability to create)

capacity; mental ability (the power to learn or retain knowledge; in law, the ability to understand the facts and significance of your behavior)

bilingualism (the ability to speak two languages colloquially)

aptitude (inherent ability)

intelligence (the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience)

leadership (the ability to lead)

know-how (the (technical) knowledge and skill required to do something)

Antonym:

inability (lack of ability (especially mental ability) to do something)

Derivation:

able ((usually followed by 'to') having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something)

able (having inherent physical or mental ability or capacity)

able (have the skills and qualifications to do things well)

 Context examples 

The eight-week treatment led to gains in weight for height, as well as improvements in motor skills and learning abilities.

(Vitamin D3 boost helps treat child malnutrition, SciDev.Net)

This potentially reduces the ability of the marsh to store carbon.

(Salt marshes' capacity to store carbon may be threatened by nitrogen pollution, National Science Foundation)

Practitioner empathy may also reflect the doctor’s listening ability and the trust of the patient in disclosing what is really wrong so that it can be addressed.

(Patients with an ‘empathic’ GP at reduced risk of early death, University of Cambridge)

Freya's ability to sense the deadly disease is tested in a plain white room.

(The Dog's Nose Knows Malaria, Kevin Enochs/VOA)

On Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017, Voyager engineers fired up the four TCM thrusters for the first time in 37 years and tested their ability to orient the spacecraft using 10-millisecond pulses.

(Voyager 1 Fires Up Thrusters After 37 Years, NASA)

Because of the role dopamine plays in these disorders, the ability to measure dopamine activity is critical for furthering our understanding of these disorders, including how to best diagnose and treat them.

(Neuromelanin-sensitive MRI identified as a potential biomarker for psychosis, National Institutes of Health)

They were the first vertebrate animals to develop the ability to fly, even before birds did.

(Brazil and China scientists unearth pterosaur eggs with preserved embryos, Agência Brasil)

“If adults retain this ability, it would help them with migration between feeding and spawning areas.”

(North Atlantic haddock use magnetic compass to guide them, National Science Foundation)

They also found that PHD proteins limit the development of inflammatory T cells and restrain their ability to produce molecules involved in cancer killing.

(Oxygen can impair cancer immunotherapy in mice, NIH)

An agonist of niacin receptors capable of mimicking niacin's ability to increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL).

(Acifran, NCI Thesaurus)