presentable

See also: présentable

English

Etymology

From Middle French presentable, from Old French, as if present +‎ -able.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈzɛntəbəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

presentable (comparative more presentable, superlative most presentable)

1. In good enough shape to be shown or offered to other people; tidy; attractive.

   Before we go out, let me just go to the washroom and make myself presentable.

   • 1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, chapter 23, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC:

     Before they went to see Glinda, however, they were taken to a room of the Castle, where Dorothy washed her face and combed her hair, and the Lion shook the dust out of his mane, and the Scarecrow patted himself into his best shape, and the Woodman polished his tin and oiled his joints. When they were all quite presentable they followed the soldier girl into a big room where the Witch Glinda sat upon a throne of rubies.

2. Acceptable; worth considering.
   • 2023 March 5, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 7-0 Manchester United”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 13 September 2026:

     Liverpool took control of what had been a tight game, with Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford missing presentable chances, when former Old Trafford target Cody Gakpo applied a smooth finish to Andy Robertson's perfect pass two minutes before the break.

3. (ecclesiastical) Capable of being presented to a church living.

Derived terms

• nonpresentable
• presentableness
• presentably
• unpresentable

Translations

able to be presented

• Bulgarian: приличен (bg) (priličen)
• Catalan: presentable
• Finnish: edustava (fi)
• French: présentable (fr)
• Galician: presentábel (gl)
• German: salonfähig (de)
• Hebrew: ייצוגי (yitsugi)
• Hungarian: szalonképes (hu)
• Spanish: presentable
• Ukrainian: презента́бельний (prezentábelʹnyj), присто́йний (prystójnyj)

Catalan

Etymology

From presentar +‎ -able.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central) [pɾə.zənˈtab.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [pɾe.zenˈta.ble]
• IPA^(key): (Northwestern) [pɾe.zenˈtab.ble]

Adjective

presentable m or f (masculine and feminine plural presentables)

1. presentable

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *per-

Proto-Indo-European *preh₂-

Proto-Indo-European *-i

Proto-Indo-European *préh₂i?

Proto-Italic *prai

Proto-Italic *prai-

Latin prae-

Proto-Indo-European *h₁es-

Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti

Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-

Proto-Indo-European *-t

Proto-Indo-European *bʰúHt

Proto-Italic *ezom~*som

Archaic Latin 𐌄𐌔𐌏𐌌 (esom)

Old Latin esum

Latin sum

Latin praesum

Proto-Indo-European *-onts

Latin -ns

Latin praesens

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu.

Proto-Italic *-ājō

Proto-Italic *-āō

Latin -ō

Latin praesentāreder.

Spanish presentar

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom

Proto-Italic *-ðlom

Proto-Italic *-ðlis

Latin -bilis

Latin -ābilis

Old Spanish -abile

Spanish -able

Spanish presentable

From presentar + -able.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɾesenˈtable/ [pɾe.sẽn̪ˈt̪a.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: pre‧sen‧ta‧ble

Adjective

presentable m or f (masculine and feminine plural presentables)

1. presentable

   Antonym: impresentable

Further reading

• “presentable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), 24th edition, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 30 October 2026