eligible

English

Etymology

From Middle French eligible, from Latin eligibilis, from ēligō (“select, choose”)

Adjective

eligible (comparative more eligible, superlative most eligible)

1. suitable; meeting the conditions; worthy of being chosen

Usage notes

Used in the phrase eligible bachelor to mean “desirable male”, the corresponding term for a woman is nubile.

Antonyms

• ineligible

Translations

suitable

Bulgarian: приемлив, подходящ (bg) Finnish: sovelias (fi), sopiva (fi), kelvollinen (fi) Hiligaynon: dápat Interlingua: eligibile (ia) Korean: 적격인 (ko) (jeokgyeogin), 적당한 (ko) (jeokdanghan)

Manx: yn-reih (gv) Romanian: eligibil (ro) m. and n. Russian: годный, пригодный, желательный, подходящий, приемлемый Serbian: pogodan (sr), poželjan (sr), podoban (sr), prikladan (sr) Telugu: తగిన (te) (tagina)

Noun

eligible (plural eligibles)

1. One who is eligible.
   • 2007 October 3, Diane Ravitch, “Get Congress Out of the Classroom”, New York Times:

     Federal agencies report that only about 1 percent of eligible students take advantage of switching schools and fewer than 20 percent of eligibles receive extra tutoring.