What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Sensible vs Agreeable - What's the difference?

sensible | agreeable |

As adjectives the difference between sensible and agreeable

is that sensible is perceptible by the senses while agreeable is pleasing, either to the mind or senses; pleasant; grateful.

As nouns the difference between sensible and agreeable

is that sensible is sensation; sensibility while agreeable is something pleasing; anything that is agreeable.

sensible

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Perceptible by the senses.
  • * Arbuthnot
  • Air is sensible to the touch by its motion.
  • * 1778 , William Lewis, The New Dispensatory (page 91)
  • The sensible qualities of argentina promise no great virtue of this kind; for to the taste it discovers only a slight roughishness, from whence it may be presumed to be entitled to a place only among the milder corroborants.
  • * 1902 , William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience , Folio Society 2008, page 45:
  • It has been vouchsafed, for example, to very few Christian believers to have had a sensible vision of their Saviour.
  • Easily perceived; appreciable.
  • * Sir W. Temple
  • The disgrace was more sensible than the pain.
  • * Adam Smith
  • The discovery of the mines of America does not seem to have had any very sensible effect upon the prices of things in England.
  • (archaic) Able to feel or perceive.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Would your cambric were sensible as your finger.
  • (archaic) Liable to external impression; easily affected; sensitive.
  • a sensible thermometer
  • * Shakespeare
  • with affection wondrous sensible
  • Of or pertaining to the senses; sensory.
  • (archaic) Cognizant; having the perception of something; aware of something.
  • * John Locke
  • He cannot think at any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it.
  • * Addison
  • They are now sensible it would have been better to comply than to refuse.
  • Acting with or showing good sense; able to make good judgements based on reason.
  • * 2005 , .
  • They ask questions of someone who thinks he's got something sensible to say on some matter when actually he hasn't.
  • Characterized more by usefulness or practicality than by fashionableness, especially of clothing.
  • * 1999 , Neil Gaiman, Stardust (2001 Perennial Edition), page 8,
  • They would walk, on fair evenings, around the village, and discuss the theory of crop rotation, and the weather, and other such sensible matters.

    Usage notes

    * "Sensible" describes the reasonable way in which a person may think'' about things or ''do things: *: It wouldn't be sensible to start all over again now. * "Sensitive" describes an emotional way in which a person may react to things: *: He has always been a sensitive child. *: I didn’t realize she was so sensitive about her work.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) Sensation; sensibility.
  • * Milton
  • Our temper changed which must needs remove the sensible of pain.
  • (obsolete) That which impresses itself on the senses; anything perceptible.
  • * Krauth-Fleming
  • Aristotle distinguished sensibles into common and proper.
  • (obsolete) That which has sensibility; a sensitive being.
  • * Burton
  • This melancholy extends itself not to men only, but even to vegetals and sensibles .

    agreeable

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Pleasing, either to the mind or senses; pleasant; grateful.
  • agreeable manners
    agreeable remarks
    an agreeable person
    fruit agreeable to the taste
  • * (rfdate) (Oliver Goldsmith):
  • A train of agreeable reveries.
  • (colloquial) Willing; ready to agree or consent.
  • * (rfdate) (Hugh Latimer):
  • These Frenchmen give unto the said captain of Calais a great sum of money, so that he will be but content and agreeable that they may enter into the said town.
  • Agreeing or suitable; conformable; correspondent; concordant; adapted; .
  • * (rfdate) (w, Roger L'Estrange):
  • That which is agreeable to the nature of one thing, is many times contrary to the nature of another.
  • In pursuance, conformity, or accordance; (used adverbially)
  • Agreeable to the order of the day, the House took up the report.

    Synonyms

    *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something pleasing; anything that is agreeable.
  • * 1855 , Blackwood's magazine (volume 77, page 331)
  • The disagreeables of travelling are necessary evils, to be encountered for the sake of the agreeables of resting and looking round you.