Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Liable to be required to give account, as of one's actions or of the discharge of a duty or trust.
- adj. Involving personal accountability or ability to act without guidance or superior authority: a responsible position within the firm.
- adj. Being a source or cause.
- adj. Able to make moral or rational decisions on one's own and therefore answerable for one's behavior.
- adj. Able to be trusted or depended upon; reliable.
- adj. Based on or characterized by good judgment or sound thinking: responsible journalism.
- adj. Having the means to pay debts or fulfill obligations.
- adj. Required to render account; answerable: The cabinet is responsible to the parliament.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Correspondent; answering; responsive.
- Answerable, as for an act performed or for its consequences, or for a trust reposed or a debt; accountable; specifically, in ethics, in general, having such a mental or moral character as to be capable of knowing and observing the distinction of right from wrong in conduct, and therefore morally accountable for one's acts; in particular (with reference to a certain act), acting or having acted as a free agent, and with knowledge of the ethical character of the act or of its consequences. With regard to the legal use of the word, two conceptions are often confused namely, that of the potential condition of being bound to answer or respond in case a wrong should occur, and that of the actual condition of being bound to respond because a wrong has occurred. For the first of these responsible is properly used, and for the second liable.
- Able to answer or respond to any reasonable claim or to what is expected; able to discharge an obligation, or having estate adequate to the payment of a debt.
- Involving responsibility.
Wiktionary
- adj. Answerable for an act performed or for its consequences; accountable; amenable, especially legally or politically.
- adj. Capable of responding to any reasonable claim; able to answer reasonably for one's conduct and obligations; capable of rational conduct.
- adj. Involving responsibility; involving a degree of personal accountability on the part of the person concerned.
- adj. Being a primary cause or agent of some event or action; capable of being credited for something, or of being held liable for something.
- adj. Able to be trusted; reliable; trustworthy.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Liable to respond; likely to be called upon to answer; accountable; answerable; amenable.
- adj. Able to respond or answer for one's conduct and obligations; trustworthy, financially or otherwise.
- adj. Involving responsibility; involving a degree of accountability on the part of the person concerned.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. being the agent or cause
- adj. worthy of or requiring responsibility or trust; or held accountable
- adj. having an acceptable credit rating
Etymologies
- From French responsable, from Latin responsus, from respondere (Wiktionary)
- Obsolete French, corresponding to, from Latin respōnsus, past participle of respondēre, to respond; see respond. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Formerly, if any one said, “I am not alone responsible for this,” he was understood to mean (what alone his words mean in correct English), that he is not the sole person responsible; but if he now used such an expression, the reader would be confused between that and two other meanings: that he is not _only responsible_ but something more; or that he is responsible _not only for this_ but for something besides.”
“The main responsible is the officer who pushed the “fire” button.”
“The main responsible is the officer who pushed the “fire†button.”
“Young God Records is the New York-based indie founded by Swans / Angels of Light Michael Gira, the label responsible for discovering Devendra Banhart and releasing music from the likes of Akron / Family and”
“The publisher actually ends up with a fairly small share of a game's recommended retail price," says Peter Stone, general manager of Konami UK, the label responsible for the epic Metal Gear Solid 4, rumoured to have cost $50m.”
“Whether the video serves as a trailer for a full-length documentary feature are unknown, however, the posted 6-minute clip gives an interesting look into the label responsible for releases from bands like Hot Water Music, Planes Mistaken For Stars, Radon and many more.”
“The president promised the American people that the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq would come to what he called a responsible end.”
Voice of America: Obama Cuts US 'Surge' Troops in Afghanistan
“But members of the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA) held a prayer vigil for what they call responsible development at the giant building.”
“LOTHIAN: But the president's plan to withdraw troops, which he calls responsible, will leave 35,000 to 50,000 U.S. troops still on the ground in Iraq to take on an advisory role, training Iraqi forces, supporting civilian operations and conducting counterterrorism missions, all of which could involve combat and getting killed, despite what the president announced.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘responsible’.
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POL - scandalous (single words only)
cadre, bribery, bashing, backhander, clash, crony, coercion, coterie, chicanery, baksheesh, acolyte, backlash and 256 more...
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grade 3
ability, absorb, act, tive, actual, adopt, advantage, ambition, ancient, arrange, arctic, attitude and 125 more...
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POL - scandalous (words and collocati...
Words and collocations associated with political scandal
blow the whistle, boo, cronyism and rigging, democratic deficit, denigrate, dirty linen, fiasco, finger pointing a..., graft, hidden account, hush money, illicit financing... and 578 more...
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Ayumi G3
Ability, absorb, accuse, act, active, actual, adopt, advantage, advice, ambition, ancient, approach and 128 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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Of -ibles, not -ables
Tricksy buggers! I've not included those where neither is favorable.
accessible, admissible, alible, apprehensible, audible, coercible, cognoscible, collapsible, collectible, combustible, comestible, compactible and 103 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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Apples to Apples: Green Cards
A complete list of the green cards (adjectives) from the popular word game.
absurd, addictive, adorable, aged, American, ancient, animated, annoying, appetizing, arrogant, awesome, awkward and 237 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2022 more...
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junestag's Words
postmodernism, cat, fish, rabbit, dell, coffee, elearning, mazda, php, mysql, flash, blogger and 755 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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Simple Business Words
Simple useful basic business words
observation, suggestion, condition, situation, action, attention, caution, innovation, position, adoption, inflated, consideration and 84 more...
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Words That Start With R
relationship, really, ration, ravenous, recipe, rest, range, radar, radiate, ranch, real, responsible and 2 more...
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March 1st
wing, embrace, colleagues, sibling, upbringing, instead, restructured, success, threat, responsible, role, helped and 1 more...
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