acceptableac‧cept‧a‧ble /əkˈseptəbəl/ ●●○ S3 W3 adjective 
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?► see thesaurus at satisfactory2acceptable 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/ noun [uncountable]
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- It's a cheap and acceptable substitute for rubber.
- Smoking is no longer considered socially acceptable by many people.
- Some low-fat cheeses have quite an acceptable flavour but some taste like rubber.
- The dispute was settled in a way that was acceptable to both sides.
- We had a lot of applicants for the job but only a few of them were acceptable.
- A Levy-Jennings quality control chart is a graphic representation of the acceptable limits of variation in the results of an analytic method.
- Even this is not always an acceptable defence, I should add.
- He also expressed optimism that an acceptable constitutional arrangement could be agreed which would obviate the need for Quebec to seek independence.
- Internet Explorer, the company says, is an acceptable, integrated part of the Windows system.
- There may be sincerely held differences concerning the level of acceptable risk.
- This kind of banter, needless to say, is not acceptable flirting behavior.
- To obtain acceptable quality when scanning photographs, at least 64 grey scales are required.
THESAURUS
good enough – often used when something reaches a fairly good standard, but is not of a high standard: · Her grades are satisfactory.· For a beginner, this camera produces satisfactory results.
spoken not bad, but not very good: · The meal was all right, but rather expensive.· ‘How was the film?’ ‘It was OK.’
fairly good: · a reasonable standard of living· The quality of the food was reasonable.
if something is acceptable to you, you think it is good enough and you are willing to take it: · an acceptable offer· an acceptable level of risk· They can't find a solution that is acceptable to both sides.
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· adequate standards of hygiene
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.· Where can I get a decent cup of coffee?· The food’s decent and the service is good.
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· His Japanese was passable.· a passable imitation of Barack Obama
informal to be of a good enough standard: · His work wasn’t up to scratch.· None of the hotels they suggested were up to scratch.
informal to be good enough for a particular purpose: · Any kind of paper will do.· ‘How about Ken?’ ‘I suppose he’ll do.’
Longman Language Activatorgood enough · If the weather's good enough next weekend we'll go camping.good enough for · It's just a cheap wine but it's good enough for a picnic.good enough to do something · Do you think she's good enough to be in the team?
something that is satisfactory reaches the expected standard but is not better than it: · You won't get paid unless your work is satisfactory.· Lynne got satisfactory grades and was offered a place at university.
spoken use this about something that is good enough but not especially good: · The children made the cakes. I hope they're all right.· "What did you think of the movie?" "Oh, it was OK - nothing special."· This book is OK for beginners but it's not really suitable for more advanced students.
spoken use this to say that something is fairly good, and better than you expected: · "What was the food like?" "Oh, not bad - better than last time."· You know, that's not a bad idea.not too bad: · "How was the exam?" "Oh, not too bad. I think I passed."
good enough for a particular purpose, especially by being of a high enough level, amount, or quality: · Employers must provide adequate training opportunities.· Now that we have extended the hall, those small electric heaters are no longer adequate.· Make sure that the lighting is adequate so that your guests can see what they are eating.
good enough to be able to be used for a particular purpose: · We had a lot of applicants for the job but only a few of them were acceptable.· Some low-fat cheeses have quite an acceptable flavour but some taste like rubber.acceptable to: · The dispute was settled in a way that was acceptable to both sides.
good enough, but not very good: · There was some bread, a little cheese and a passable French wine.· He gave a passable imitation of Charlie Chaplin.
fairly good, but not very good: · Most of her work is of a reasonable standard.· A reasonable number of people turned up for the meeting.· We had an enjoyable weekend and the weather was quite reasonable.
a piece of work or a performance that is competent is done to a satisfactory standard but does not have any particularly good or skilful features: · Most of the essays were competent but one was really outstanding.· Ben took out his pen and produced a quick but very competent sketch of the building.
spoken of a good enough quality or standard: · I want to provide my boys with a decent education.· There isn't one decent restaurant around here.
especially spoken to be good enough for a particular purpose: · If you don't have any butter, margarine will do.· I want someone to practise first aid on. You'll do, Simon.will do somebody (=be good enough for someone): · Don't bother fetching me another chair. This one'll do me fine.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY Students who achieve an acceptable standard will progress to degree studies. How do we reach an acceptable level of data security? Alcohol is not an acceptable way out of your problems. Here, the students set the standards for acceptable behaviour. 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.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Students who achieve an acceptable standard will progress to degree studies. How do we reach an acceptable level of data security? Alcohol is not an acceptable way out of your problems. Here, the students set the standards for acceptable behaviour. 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.· I’m busy tomorrow but Wednesday is a possible alternative.
· This sort of behavior is completely unacceptable.
· By 1982 an acceptable compromise had been reached.
· All too often their behaviour has fallen below acceptable standards.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· A margin of error of 10% is seen as acceptable.· Thus, what was viewed as acceptable was determined largely by the centres' main client group - elderly disabled people.· Does the Minister regard that as acceptable?· Arguably, however, the midwife's record of a normal fetal heart rate should be just as acceptable as evidence.· And that is as acceptable an approach as a little touch of Harry at the conference.· The twelve hour course was not generally as acceptable.
· The alternative route was chosen on three criteria: that it should be environmentally acceptable, operationally effective and financially viable.· Overall processing costs are highly competitive with other existing, environmentally acceptable technologies.· Charcoal consumption from these sources is not environmentally acceptable.
· As a consequence, the goldsmiths' receipts began to circulate as generally acceptable means of payment.· From the federal perspective, generally acceptable activities were being planned and carried out, largely on local initiative.· But on this and all other questions there were enormous gaps in the knowledge necessary for coming to generally acceptable decisions.· The ride is firm but generally acceptable.· The bases and policies used by the audit should be generally acceptable both to the accountancy profession and to the business community.
· To have left the tube and drain in place for 14-21 days would have been ideal but less acceptable to the patient.· The idea of a union, of solidarity, is becoming less and less acceptable.· For girls, this was less acceptable.· Even in labor it is becoming less acceptable.· Smoking in the workplace is becoming less and less acceptable.· As we shall see in Chapter 2, this claim has now become less plausible and less acceptable.· When prices do change, however, the income statement becomes less acceptable as a measure of performance.· This will be much less acceptable.
· Medical advances in recent years have made male and female sterilisation simpler and more acceptable to many people.· Teams hold employees to high standards, acting as a more acceptable quality control mechanism than evaluations and orders from the top.· Many patients find it more acceptable if gloves are worn for all venepuncture.· When a rare disagreement arose, he tried to coax stragglers along or simply found a more acceptable phrasing.· Once again the change can have nothing to do with making the chapter more acceptable.· In 20 years or so, Frelich believes, restoration ecology will become far more acceptable among professional foresters.· Then the authority has to decide for one of the two or more acceptable options.· In contrast, when tape-slide presentations were used for individual instruction, students found them more acceptable.
· To my father it sounded very much like hard work, and that was most acceptable.· Reconstituted milk is most acceptable when served well chilled.· This would be the least expensive and most acceptable form of longterm prophylaxis against gall stone recurrence.· The introduction of change may be most acceptable and often unnoticeable through new media such as video screens.· A pair of these, with a simple matching scarf in a lovely colour, makes a quick but most acceptable present.
· The agreement of a mutually acceptable reserve price is key.· These few basic rules can make your group maximally helpful:-Meet regularly at a mutually acceptable time and place.· The havens said instead that they wanted multilateral negotiations to achieve a mutually acceptable and beneficial set of standards.· This commission would be composed of mutually acceptable and appropriate international personalities and representatives from governments and international organizations.
· Styles of dress which are perfectly acceptable at home may be offensive to local inhabitants or may be banned altogether.· But if there is no punishment, it is perfectly acceptable to tell lies.· However, although words considered in a local context may seem perfectly acceptable in the sentential context these combinations may be unlikely.· This was perfectly acceptable to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; it was not at all acceptable to the court.· A fair amount is conducted by ministerial correspondence, a perfectly acceptable method in constitutional terms.· Frozen duck is perfectly acceptable, but-as with most products-fresh is preferred.· If the seller has left himself negotiating room, then this may be perfectly acceptable.· Celibacy is perfectly acceptable, although rare.
· In some areas rate levels were already beyond the limits which were regarded as socially and politically acceptable.· She always chose safe, politically acceptable topics for her films, she says.· Technically sweet and politically acceptable, it avoids accusation of moral hypocrisy by using economic arguments to appeal to self interest.· By contrast, solar cells are politically acceptable.· The limitations of performance evaluation lead to a concern with visible and politically acceptable results.
· This was found unacceptable by 57 percent, quite acceptable by 35 percent and very acceptable by 7 percent.· In particular, habitats which appear inhospitable at one period may be quite acceptable and considered normal at another.· But usually you want the goods, so an exchange of goods is normally considered quite acceptable.· A double-breasted jacket needs no waistcoat, but one is quite acceptable with single-breasted.· So their green suede jackets with leather collars were quite acceptable.· After all, it wasn't that long ago that it was quite acceptable to belch smoke over the countryside.· Before the days of audiences counted in millions, it was quite acceptable for artists to imitate other artists.· Your young daughter's bossy attitude in later life may be channelled into quite acceptable leadership qualities.
· Advertising also creates the impression that smoking is a socially acceptable norm.· No, there are plenty of healthier and more socially acceptable options.· The Drugs unit aims to expand pupils' knowledge of drugs so that they appreciate that only some drugs are socially acceptable.· The socially acceptable reason is usually based on religious or moral beliefs.· They come from the upper classes and are socially acceptable.· I knew what is socially acceptable and what is not.· Both factions needed a socially acceptable spokesman.· He would, he realized, for the first time in his life have a socially acceptable problem.
· This was found unacceptable by 57 percent, quite acceptable by 35 percent and very acceptable by 7 percent.· Both were ambassadors to Rome for their own cities - that is, they were very acceptable to the governing class of Rome.· He had a good later reputation, and according to Osbern was very acceptable to Cnut because he had given him holy chrism.· It took me about ten days to work my way into it, after that I found it very acceptable.
NOUN· A semicolon following a prompt string is an acceptable alternative to a comma.· This would serve as an acceptable alternative.· Balked of Alfred, she would find Harry Washington a more than acceptable alternative.· Employers have always been able to contract out their workers from the scheme if they offered an acceptable alternative.· Although purpose-made units are expensive to buy, ordinary hand-microphones attached to simple booms make an acceptable alternative for amateur use.· Nevertheless, neither the Chronicle nor the Historia Brittonum provides an acceptable alternative to the Bedan chronology.· In some societies, there are no options, no acceptable alternatives to early marriage.
· To summarize, norms define appropriate and acceptable behaviour in specific situations.· This minefield is compounded by the moral nature of the problem; about what is and is not acceptable behaviour.· Commonly, both are used consistently to help replace an undesirable behaviour with acceptable behaviour.· Criminal libel is unlikely to occur other than rarely, but is available to define the limits of acceptable behaviour.· This sharing of expectations about acceptable behaviour ensures conformity.· All the evidence suggests that schools are generally well-ordered places where acceptable behaviour is the norm.
· So averaging two adjacent lines, then using the averaged line twice, is an acceptable compromise.· A federation can be an acceptable compromise when strong peripheral governments create a central government.· An often acceptable compromise is local manufacture or assembly by a multinational company.· The model will be used to explore these energy strategies which might form the basis of acceptable compromises.
· Graduated separatism, the acceptable face of separatism, can be seen as the ripples which pass outwards from this.· NILTs have always been regarded as representing the acceptable face of tribunals.· But anger has its perfectly acceptable face.
· He is able, also, to work on his notes towards a more publicly acceptable form of language.· Maybe it allowed him to express aggression in an acceptable form.· All would be aware of the difficulty of finding ideologically acceptable forms of fun.· Similarly, conspicuous consumption or display is now regarded as an acceptable form of behaviour.· This would be the least expensive and most acceptable form of longterm prophylaxis against gall stone recurrence.
· The teacher will use a wide range of approaches and materials to bring them all up to an acceptable level of performance.· Fortunately, it is possible to achieve acceptable levels of SO2 by four Simple and relatively inexpensive measures.· A large quantity of information is needed in order to reduce this uncertainty to an acceptable level.· In such cases, the environment provides foot soldiers with confusing signals regarding the acceptable level and forms of political activism.· How do we reach an acceptable level of data security?· But if there is a significant improvement then the programme can be continued until the problem reaches an acceptable level.· This brings noise from the busiest roads to an acceptable level.· Britain prefers absolute standards, which would exclude all products that failed to come up to the minimum acceptable level.
· Peter Wood's brief is to guide us to an acceptable quality management system that genuinely reflects our practices.· Teams hold employees to high standards, acting as a more acceptable quality control mechanism than evaluations and orders from the top.· To obtain acceptable quality when scanning photographs, at least 64 grey scales are required.· Internet video broadcasts still are crude but have the potential to one day reach acceptable quality.
· Without it individuals would have had a choice as to which of the acceptable solutions to adopt.· Efficient recycling is the only acceptable solution for Earth and the only key to sustainable life elsewhere in space.· Fairly obviously, this is not one of those situations where this is an acceptable solution.· The lack of consensus explains why area politicians have failed to reach an acceptable solution.· Neither creative nor conventional paths will necessarily lead to an acceptable solution in every case.· He agreed to go to Rome himself to try to obtain an acceptable solution.
· This study has shown that an acceptable standard of diabetic care can be provided in normal surgery time.· Students who achieve an acceptable standard may have the opportunity to progress to degree studies.· Inadequate professional services are services which fall below an acceptable standard, but are short of negligent work.· Sections which fall below an acceptable standard in terms of quantity, quality of content, or physical condition should receive priority.· The western section is already at an acceptable standard but the east section is in poor condition, virtually unusable when wet.· They will also be expected to submit answer books that are of acceptable standard.
· How, then, can the informal interview be used in sociology in an acceptable way?· Having no acceptable way of expressing their feelings directly, they probably vented them on nature.· Individuals may see alcohol as an acceptable way out of their problems.· But they also show that there is wide disagreement about what is considered to be an acceptable way forward.· Norms defining acceptable ways for settling an argument or dispute usually exclude physical violence and manslaughter.· One of the more intractable problems was how to dispose of the effluent in an ecologically acceptable way.· Still, wasn't that also unimportant, although in a less acceptable way?
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
- Cleaning symbiosis on the other hand is a true form of mutually beneficial arrangement with both cleaner and host benefiting.
- Community Linking is direct people to people contact which leads to equal, mutually beneficial relationships across cultures.
- It encourages open communication, and learning about processes of living in mutually beneficial ways.
- Obtaining frankness within families about the feelings and expectations they have of each other can be mutually beneficial.
- Some of those diets were the result of a mutually beneficial alliance between physicians and food producers.
- These few basic rules can make your group maximally helpful:-Meet regularly at a mutually acceptable time and place.
- This commission would be composed of mutually acceptable and appropriate international personalities and representatives from governments and international organizations.
- This takes place at a time prearranged to be mutually convenient.
WORD FAMILYadjectiveacceptable ≠ unacceptableacceptednounacceptanceverbacceptadverbacceptably ≠ unacceptably
1good enough to be used for a particular purpose or to be considered satisfactoryacceptable 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?► see thesaurus at satisfactory2acceptable 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/ noun [uncountable]