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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

responsible.

Having the duty of taking care of something; answerable for an act performed or for its consequences; accountable; amenable, especially legally or politically.

11 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ɹɪˈspɒn.sə.bəl/Received-Pronunciation[ɹɪˈspɒn.sə.bɫ̩]Received-Pronunciation/ɹɪˈspɑn.sə.bəl/Atlantic-Canada, General-American[ɹɪˈspɑn.sə.bɫ̩]Atlantic-Canada, General-American
  1. Having the duty of taking care of something; answerable for an act performed or for its consequences; accountable; amenable, especially legally or politically.

    postpositional
    Parents are responsible for their child's behaviour.
  2. Being a primary cause of a situation or action and thus able to be blamed or credited for it.

    postpositional
    Who is responsible for this mess?
  3. Answerable to (a superior).

  4. Involving important duties; involving a degree of personal accountability on the part of the person concerned.

    She has a responsible position in the firm.
  5. Having good judgment in decision-making.

  6. Able to be trusted; reliable; trustworthy.

    He looks like a responsible guy.
  7. Capable of rational conduct and thus morally accountable for one's behavior.

Where this word comes from

From Middle French responsable, from Old French responsable, responsible, formed from the root of Latin responsus, from respondeō, respondēre. The spelling of the English word is taken from the Old French variant responsible. By surface analysis, response + -ible.

noun/ɹɪˈspɒn.sə.bəl/Received-Pronunciation[ɹɪˈspɒn.sə.bɫ̩]Received-Pronunciation/ɹɪˈspɑn.sə.bəl/Atlantic-Canada, General-American[ɹɪˈspɑn.sə.bɫ̩]Atlantic-Canada, General-American
  1. The person who bears the responsibility for something.

    archaic
  2. An actor taking on the lesser roles in repertory theatre.

Where this word comes from

From Middle French responsable, from Old French responsable, responsible, formed from the root of Latin responsus, from respondeō, respondēre. The spelling of the English word is taken from the Old French variant responsible. By surface analysis, response + -ible.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.