reliable

English

Etymology

From Scottish raliabill, itself from to rely + -able

Pronunciation

• enPR: rĭ-līʹə-bəl, IPA: /rɪˈlaɪəbəl/, SAMPA: /rI"laI@b@l/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪəbəl

Adjective

reliable (comparative more reliable, superlative most reliable)

1. Suitable or fit to be relied on; worthy of dependence or reliance; trustworthy

   A reliable witness to the truth of the miracles. -- Andrews Norton.

   The best means, and most reliable pledge, of a higher object. -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

   According to General Livingston's humorous account, his own village of Elizabethtown was not much more reliable, being peopled in those agitated times by unknown, unrecommended strangers, guilty-looking Tories, and very knavish Whigs. --Washington Irving.

2. (signal processing, of a communication protocol) Such that either a sent packet will reach its destination, even if it requires retransmission, or the sender will be told that it didn't

Synonyms

• secure

Antonyms

• unreliable

Derived terms

• reliableness
• reliably
• semireliable

Related terms

• reliability
• reliance
• rely

Translations

fit to be relied on

Czech: spolehlivý (cs) Dutch: betrouwbaar (nl), zeker (nl) Finnish: luotettava (fi) French: fiable (fr), sûr (fr) German: verlässlich (de), zuverlässig (de) Greek: αξιόπιστος (el) (aksiopistos) m. Hebrew: אמין (he) (amin)

Hungarian: megbízható (hu), szavahihető (hu) Italian: affidabile (it) m. and f. pl. Portuguese: fiável (pt) Scottish Gaelic: seasmhach (gd) Spanish: fiable (es) West Frisian: fertroud (fy)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Swedish: pålitlig (sv) Indonesian: reliabel (id)

See also

• Reliability on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Reliability

Noun

reliable (plural reliables)

1. Something or someone reliable

   the old reliables

Translations

someone to be relied on

Dutch: getrouwe (nl) m.

something to be relied on

Dutch: zekerheid (nl)