responsible

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj

Having the duty of taking care of something; answerable for an act performed or for its consequences; accountable; amenable, especially legally or politically.
Being a primary cause of a situation or action and thus able to be blamed or credited for it.
Answerable to (a superior).
Involving important duties; involving a degree of personal accountability on the part of the person concerned.
Having good judgment in decision-making.
Able to be trusted; reliable; trustworthy.
Capable of rational conduct and thus morally accountable for one's behavior.

noun

The individual who bears the responsibility for something.
An actor taking on the lesser roles in repertory theatre.

Pronunciation

/ɹɪˈspɒn.sə.bəl/ [ɹɪˈspɒn.sə.bɫ̩] /ɹɪˈspɑn.sə.bəl/ [ɹɪˈspɑn.sə.bɫ̩] en-us-responsible.ogg /ɹɪˈspɔn.sə.bəl/ [ɹɪˈspɔn.sə.bɫ̩] /ɹəˈspɒn.sə.bəl/ [ɹəˈspɔ̟n.sə.bɫ̩]

Word forms

responsible more responsible most responsible responsibles

Etymology

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

Antonyms

irresponsible

Related words

irresponsible respond response responsibility responsibleness responsibly

Derived words

co-responsible eco-responsible irresponsibility irresponsible nonresponsible responsibility responsibilize responsibleness responsible trading responsibly semiresponsible superresponsible unresponsible

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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