answerability 1 of 2

as in accountability
willingness or obligation to explain one's actions or to admit being the cause of a problem Without any answerability to the people, the despot's actions were motivated by a desire for personal enrichment.

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

1
as in responsible
being the one who must meet an obligation or suffer the consequences for failing to do so you are answerable for your own conduct at all times

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

2

Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective answerable contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of answerable are accountable, amenable, liable, and responsible. While all these words mean "subject to being held to account," answerable suggests a relation between one having a moral or legal obligation and a court or other authority charged with oversight of its observance.

an intelligence agency answerable to Congress

Where would accountable be a reasonable alternative to answerable?

The synonyms accountable and answerable are sometimes interchangeable, but accountable suggests imminence of retribution for unfulfilled trust or violated obligation.

elected officials are accountable to the voters

How do amenable and liable relate to one another, in the sense of answerable?

Both amenable and liable stress the fact of subjection to review, censure, or control by a designated authority under certain conditions.

laws are amenable to judicial review
not liable for the debts of the former spouse

When can responsible be used instead of answerable?

The meanings of responsible and answerable largely overlap; however, responsible implies holding a specific office, duty, or trust.

the bureau responsible for revenue collection

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of answerability
Adjective
Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon might all have been answerable to those charges, and that’s just limiting ourselves to the 20th century. Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 7 Feb. 2025 Independent agencies cannot be both neutral and fair enforcers of the law and simultaneously only answerable to the president, Malloy said. Carrie Johnson, NPR, 12 Mar. 2025 Critics respond that their independent status undermines democratic principles, effectively creating a fourth branch of government that is answerable to no one. James Broughel, Forbes, 19 Feb. 2025 Lawmakers in Washington fear ByteDance is ultimately answerable to the Chinese government, which could make Americans' data and political views potentially vulnerable to a foreign adversary. Bobby Allyn, NPR, 13 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for answerability
Recent Examples of Synonyms for answerability
Noun
  • At what point will environmental stewardship and accountability to the public good outweigh the short-term convenience of summer scheduling?
    Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 17 May 2025
  • Typically, there is unchecked power, a lack of transparency, and frequently no accountability.
    Jim Osman, Forbes.com, 17 May 2025
Adjective
  • The pandemic is largely responsible for the talent boom, which has turned into a fine art movement.
    Brittney Melton, NPR, 19 May 2025
  • The office in Jackson, Ky., which was responsible for the area around London, had a March vacancy rate of 25%; the Louisville weather service staff was down 29%; and the St. Louis office was down 16%, according to calculations by weather service employees obtained by the Associated Press.
    Dylan Lovan, Los Angeles Times, 19 May 2025
Noun
  • Your routines, responsibilities, employment or health could have all budded happily.
    Kyle Thomas, People.com, 18 May 2025
  • The pain of loss and the pain of (some) responsibility for ending a Cup run must be overwhelming.
    Mark Lazerus, New York Times, 18 May 2025
Adjective
  • Stork, a longtime opponent of the dam raise, said the Trump administration is liable to ignore the state law.
    CalMatters, Mercury News, 13 May 2025
  • By the end of the trial, Heard was found liable in all three matters of defamation raised.
    Lea Veloso, StyleCaster, 12 May 2025
Adjective
  • Fortunately, more reasoned minds, notably George Washington realized that such aspirations were not feasible.
    John Baldoni, Forbes.com, 17 May 2025
  • By the 1980s, oil production had become less feasible and, in 2011, the Petroleum Club shut its doors but, in the meantime, institutional wealth from oil was being reinvested in the decaying city to help revivify it.
    Andrew Moore, New York Times, 15 May 2025
Adjective
  • When the soil is submerged underwater, arsenic in the ground becomes soluble and the plant’s roots can mistake the arsenic for nutrients and absorb it, said Andrew Meharg, the chair of plant and soil science at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland.
    The Washington Post, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 May 2025
  • In the double doody realm, viscous soluble fiber is the star.
    Julie Stewart, SELF, 25 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • Jason Ritter plays Julian’s scenes in this episode with raw emotion, making the character’s choices more explicable, if not entirely forgivable.
    Noel Murray, Vulture, 18 Apr. 2025
  • An extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws, and is therefore attributed to a divine agency?
    Tim Spiers, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • This is a solvable problem, however, as companies can also institute initiatives--mentoring programs for all and opportunities for cross-training and upskilling—that have been shown to help underrepresented workers forge closer relationships with leaders across the organization.
    Adia Harvey Wingfield, Forbes.com, 15 May 2025
  • The emergencies in these shows are contained and often solvable.
    Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 9 May 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Answerability.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/answerability. Accessed 23 May. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!