ac ‧ cept ‧ a ‧ ble S3 W3 /əkˈseptəb ə l/ BrE AmE adjective
[ Word Family: adjective : ↑ acceptable ≠ ↑ unacceptable , ↑ accepted ; verb : ↑ accept ; noun : ↑ acceptance ; adverb : ↑ acceptably ≠ ↑ unacceptably ]
1 . good enough to be used for a particular purpose or to be considered satisfactory
acceptable to
an agreement which is acceptable to all sides
Students who achieve an acceptable standard will progress to degree studies.
How do we reach an acceptable level of data security?
2 . acceptable behaviour is considered to be morally or socially good enough:
Alcohol is not an acceptable way out of your problems.
Here, the students set the standards for acceptable behaviour.
acceptable (for somebody) to do something
It is not socially acceptable for parents to leave children unattended at that age.
It is perfectly acceptable to sample the food before you buy.
—acceptably adverb
—acceptability /əkˌseptəˈbɪləti, əkˌseptəˈbɪlɪti/ noun [uncountable]
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THESAURUS
▪ satisfactory good enough – often used when something reaches a fairly good standard, but is not of a high standard:
Her grades are satisfactory.
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For a beginner, this camera produces satisfactory results.
▪ all right/OK spoken not bad, but not very good:
The meal was all right, but rather expensive.
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‘How was the film?’ ‘It was OK.’
▪ reasonable fairly good:
a reasonable standard of living
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The quality of the food was reasonable.
▪ acceptable if something is acceptable to you, you think it is good enough and you are willing to take it:
an acceptable offer
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an acceptable level of risk
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They can't find a solution that is acceptable to both sides.
▪ adequate enough in quantity, or of a good enough standard. Adequate sounds rather formal and is used especially in official contexts:
an adequate supply of drinking water
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adequate standards of hygiene
▪ decent especially spoken good enough in quality – used especially when something is as good as most other things:
I want my kids to get a decent education.
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Where can I get a decent cup of coffee?
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The food’s decent and the service is good.
▪ passable satisfactory, but not of the best quality – used especially about food and drink, or someone’s skill at doing something. Passable sounds rather formal:
a passable French wine
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His Japanese was passable.
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a passable imitation of Barack Obama
▪ be up to scratch informal to be of a good enough standard:
His work wasn’t up to scratch.
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None of the hotels they suggested were up to scratch.
▪ will do informal to be good enough for a particular purpose:
Any kind of paper will do.
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‘How about Ken?’ ‘I suppose he’ll do.’