SOCIABLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sociable mean? 

• SOCIABLE (noun)
  The noun SOCIABLE has 1 sense:

1. a party of people assembled to promote sociability and communal activity

  Familiarity information: SOCIABLE used as a noun is very rare.

• SOCIABLE (adjective)
  The adjective SOCIABLE has 2 senses:

1. inclined to or conducive to companionship with others

2. friendly and pleasant

  Familiarity information: SOCIABLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SOCIABLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A party of people assembled to promote sociability and communal activity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

mixer; sociable; social

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

party (a group of people gathered together for pleasure)

Derivation:

sociable (inclined to or conducive to companionship with others)

• SOCIABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Inclined to or conducive to companionship with others

Context example:

Americans are sociable and gregarious

Similar:

clubable; clubbable (inclined to club together)

clubbish; clubby (effusively sociable)

companionable (suggestive of companionship)

convivial; good-time (occupied with or fond of the pleasures of good company)

extroverted; forthcoming; outgoing (at ease in talking to others)

social (composed of sociable people or formed for the purpose of sociability)

Also:

friendly (characteristic of or befitting a friend)

extraversive; extroversive (directed outward; marked by interest in others or concerned with external reality)

social (living together or enjoying life in communities or organized groups)

Attribute:

sociability; sociableness (the relative tendency or disposition to be sociable or associate with one's fellows)

Antonym:

unsociable (not inclined to society or companionship)

Derivation:

sociability (the relative tendency or disposition to be sociable or associate with one's fellows)

sociable (a party of people assembled to promote sociability and communal activity)

sociableness (the relative tendency or disposition to be sociable or associate with one's fellows)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Friendly and pleasant

Context example:

a sociable gathering

Similar:

congenial (suitable to your needs)

Derivation:

sociability; sociableness (the relative tendency or disposition to be sociable or associate with one's fellows)

 Context examples 

It may make our stay in this cabin more—may I say, sociable?

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Try to be sociable at the Lambs'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The Grants showing a disposition to be friendly and sociable, gave great satisfaction in the main among their new acquaintance.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I am a bachelor, said he, and being of a sociable turn I cultivate a large number of friends.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Findings show that people's eye movements reveal whether they are sociable, conscientious or curious, with the algorithm software reliably recognizing four of the Big Five personality traits: neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

(Eyes Can Indicate Personality Type, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

He said much of his earnest desire of their living in the most sociable terms with his family, and pressed them so cordially to dine at Barton Park every day till they were better settled at home, that, though his entreaties were carried to a point of perseverance beyond civility, they could not give offence.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Me, she had dispensed from joining the group; saying, She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance; but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation, that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner—something lighter, franker, more natural, as it were—she really must exclude me from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I have made the acquaintance of another one of the crew,—Louis he is called, a rotund and jovial-faced Nova Scotia Irishman, and a very sociable fellow, prone to talk as long as he can find a listener.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

“He was the only friend I made during the two years I was at college. I was never a very sociable fellow, Watson, always rather fond of moping in my rooms and working out my own little methods of thought, so that I never mixed much with the men of my year. Bar fencing and boxing I had few athletic tastes, and then my line of study was quite distinct from that of the other fellows, so that we had no points of contact at all. Trevor was the only man I knew, and that only through the accident of his bull terrier freezing on to my ankle one morning as I went down to chapel.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There are some pleasant people in the house if you feel sociable, and your evenings are always free.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)