Words / C2

PAL-uh-t-uh-bl/ˈpælətəbl/

Palatable means pleasant to taste, or of a plan, acceptable enough to be swallowed: a palatable meal, make the cuts palatable. Tasty is everyday for food; acceptable (already in the dictionary) is the wider cousin for proposals. Unpalatable is the opposite. Do not make a missing key palatable with a slogan.

Meaning

Pleasant to taste; of a proposal, acceptable enough to be swallowed.

Examples

• “A palatable slogan does not restore the night bus.”
• “Tasty is everyday (food). Acceptable is the proposal cousin (already in the dictionary). Edible is merely not poisonous. A compromise with a named date can be palatable and still honest. Sugar on a cut that leaves the clinic empty is not palatable; it is a gloss. Name the bus.”

Good to know

Acceptable; pleasant to taste. Everyday: tasty (food) / acceptable (plans). Opposite: unpalatable. A slogan does not sweeten an empty rota.

Near in meaning

acceptable

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