# amenable

/əˈmɛnəbəɫ/ (US) · /ɐmˈiːnəbəl/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/amenable
Updated: 2026-08-27

## Senses

### 1. willing to cooperate

adjective · CEFR C1 · Formal

willing to accept a suggestion or be persuaded by someone.

For teachers: willing to respond to persuasion or suggestions; open to influence.

- The manager was amenable to our idea for a shorter work week.
- Although the board was initially skeptical, they proved amenable to the restructuring proposal once the long-term benefits were clearly articulated.

Usage: Usually followed by the preposition 'to'.

### 2. capable of being treated

adjective · CEFR C1 · Formal · Technical

able to be dealt with or solved using a particular method.

For teachers: capable of being acted upon in a particular way; susceptible to a specific treatment or type of analysis.

- This specific medical condition is usually amenable to drug treatment.
- The data set was not amenable to standard statistical analysis due to the high number of missing variables.

Usage: Commonly used in medical or scientific contexts with 'to'.

### 3. legally responsible

adjective · CEFR C2 · Formal · Technical

having to answer to a legal authority or rule.

For teachers: legally answerable or liable to the authority of a particular law, court, or person.

- As a citizen living abroad, he was still amenable to the laws of his home country.
- The treaty ensures that foreign contractors remain amenable to the jurisdiction of local courts regarding environmental damage.

Usage: Typically takes the preposition 'to'.

### 4. mathematical property

adjective · CEFR C2 · Technical

a technical term for a group that has a special kind of average.

For teachers: describing a locally compact topological group that possesses a translation-invariant mean.

- The professor explained why every finite group is considered amenable.
- The study of amenable groups has profound implications for von Neumann algebras and ergodic theory.

## Examples

- The defendant was amenable to a plea deal.
- The witness was amenable to the lawyer's questions and provided a detailed account of the events.
- The system is designed to be amenable to various types of input, allowing researchers to test different variables without significant structural changes to the core algorithm.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.