Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having the same tastes, habits, or temperament; sympathetic.
- adj. Of a pleasant disposition; friendly and sociable: a congenial host.
- adj. Suited to one's needs or nature; agreeable: congenial surroundings.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Partaking of the same nature or natural characteristics; kindred; like.
- Hence Suited or adapted in character or feeling; pleasing or agreeable; harmonious; sympathetic; companionable.
- Naturally suited or adapted; having fitness or correspondence; agreeable; pleasing: as, congenial work.
- Synonyms Pleasing, Agreeable, etc. See pleasant.
Wiktionary
- adj. having the same or very similar nature, personality, tastes, habits or interests
- adj. friendly or sociable
- adj. suitable to one's needs
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Partaking of the same nature; allied by natural characteristics; kindred; sympathetic.
- adj. Naturally adapted; suited to the disposition.
- adj. (Bot.) capable of cross-fertilization or of being grafted; -- used of plants.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (used of plants) capable of cross-fertilization or of being grafted
- adj. suitable to your needs
Etymologies
- con- + genial (Wiktionary)
- Probably from con- + Latin genius, the personification of one's natural inclinations; see genius. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Pointing out that a claim I find congenial is bullshit is a symptom of class and gender privilege.”
“We will review our stated position only if we are satisfied that the viability of the project is not being impinged, the integral nature of the mother plant and our ancillary units are being maintained and all stakeholders are committed to develop a long-term congenial environment for smooth operations of the plant," a Tata spokesman said in a statement.”
The Wall Street Journal: Tata Idles Work on Plant Despite Protests' End
“The woman who earns a competence in congenial work insists on economic standards which are often beyond the capacity of the men whom she knows and might possibly marry.”
“Suffering and death and all ugliness were forgotten in congenial and healthful companionship.”
“From the mangrove swamps at the mouths of turbid, sluggish rivers, where numberless alligators dwell in congenial slime, the State gradually rises inland, passing through all the imaginable wealth of tropical vegetation and produce till it becomes hilly, if not mountainous.”
“A Tata Motors spokesperson told ET: “We will review our stated position only if we are satisfied that the viability of the project is not being impinged, the integral nature of the mother plant and our ancillary units are being maintained and all stakeholders are committed to develop a long-term congenial environment. —
“Japan promptly set about engaging the modern world on terms congenial to its own political priorities--not those of outsiders.”
The Huffington Post: Ian Fletcher: Japan, the Forgotten Protectionist Threat
“But again, if we say that the congenial is the same as the good, in that case the good and he only will be the friend of the good.”
“As the man on the suit-case gazed about him at the general air of dilapidation and neglect characteristic of a country town on the down grade, and recalled the congenial life of the city which he had left, with all its busy competition, with all its absorbing activities, the companionship of the men he loved, and the restful, inspiring intimacy with a certain young woman, he felt, for the moment, a pang of homesickness.”
“The party at Broadstone was not in what might be called a congenial condition.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘congenial’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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Verbal_Advantage
paraphrase, ostensible, digress, uncanny, candor, morose, adept, saturated, pragmatic, congenial, capricious, blatant and 38 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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phil vocab 3
genocide, superfluous, warfare, indissoluble, sentient, confound, pernicious, dispose, render, amiable, paradox, puritanical and 36 more...
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jan_21
magoosh listens
infuriating, galvanize, sporadic, imperciptible, shirk, protean, versatile, auspicious, clairvoyance, nary, predilection, inkling and 63 more...
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Barron's 1100 words you need to know ...
rue, aegis, awesome, conflagration, congenial, debris, deplorable, detriment, dispersed, doddering, eruption, hoard and 7 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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Reading Vocab
ulterior, warrant, syllogism, precious, impiety, maroon, aigrette, batiste, topsy-turvy ago, midnight crush, cantankerous, slovenly and 180 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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Advanced Words: Part II
facetious, felicitous, grandiloquent, germane, repatriate, exigency, exculpate, etheral, fatuous, heterogeneous, hiatus, idiosyncrasy and 118 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for congenial.

dailyword Homes used this word when he was talking to Watson about his meeting with Moriarty that he was about to go to. Jul 23, 2012