What's the difference between affable and gracious?

Affable


Definition:

  • (a.) Easy to be spoken to or addressed; receiving others kindly and conversing with them in a free and friendly manner; courteous; sociable.
  • (a.) Gracious; mild; benign.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The claim has stunned a community who knew him not as a pale spectre in Taliban videos but as the tall, affable young man who served coffee and deftly fended off jokes about Billy Elliot – he did ballet along with karate, fencing, paragliding and mountain biking.
  • (2) He is affable but hyperactive, or maybe he has consumed too much white powder.
  • (3) As a businessman I had an obligation.” He also contrasted his alleged affability with Clinton’s remark during the first Democratic debate that she viewed Republicans as “an enemy”.
  • (4) When he appeared on Desert Island Discs, for example, Kirsty Young expressed surprise that he was so affable and giving, wondering aloud why she might have thought otherwise.
  • (5) Musk has a reputation for being prickly but when I meet him at SpaceX , his headquarters west of Los Angeles, he is affable and chatty, cheerfully expounding on space exploration, climate change, Richard Branson and Hollywood.
  • (6) His decisiveness and affability were valuable assets, but much more than this, he was one of the few who sought both to understand and to explain what was happening.
  • (7) It turns up at quarter to ten, deposited by an affable chap in a uniform.
  • (8) Lucky Richard was assigned to Poke ’s most affable hosts, the restaurant critic Tracey MacLeod and her colleague, the rapper LL Cool J , who plied him with fudge and polystyrene all day, while I was understandably ignored by my master, a capable young comic newspaper columnist called Michael Andrew Gove.
  • (9) Talha Asmal, 17, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire , who reportedly detonated a vehicle fitted with explosives while fighting for the militant group in Iraq, was described as “a loving, kind, caring and affable teenager” by his devastated family.
  • (10) Speaking after the event, which was not open to journalists, the shareholder described Grade as "affable", but questioned whether he had delivered for investors.
  • (11) But in the meantime, they can continue to muddle along as they are: affable, a bit posh and fine with it.
  • (12) It's all the fault of that blasted weather, of course, but the affable Stan Wawrinka isn't happy, the Swiss taking aim at the tournament organisers for messing up his schedule, making him play a possible five matches in seven days and potentially wrecking his hopes of adding to the Australian Open he won in January.
  • (13) He was bright, intrepid, determined and full of character ... A very talented footballer and magnificent marine he had a lot to be proud of, yet I knew him to be an affable, generous, loyal and modest young man."
  • (14) Rwanda has a flourishing economy and well-oiled PR machine, and the affable Kagame uses that most democratic of media, Twitter .
  • (15) Some people have encountered an affable man with a beard and a hat.
  • (16) Boehner was referring to a Wall Street Journal report quoting an unnamed "senior administration official" as saying: “We are winning…It doesn’t really matter to us” how long the shutdown lasts “because what matters is the end result.” Boehner says he's known for his affable demeanor and fair-mindedness.
  • (17) By contrast it was the outwardly affable Harold Macmillan who pulled off a gruesome "night of the long knives", ditching a third of his cabinet overnight in an exercise named after Hitler's rather bloodier dispatching of his own lieutenants in the SA.
  • (18) Its affable 79-year-old owner, Salome Gutiérrez, has extended Del Bravo to include a Tejas y su Musica (The Texas Music Museum) honouring Lydia and other local artists.
  • (19) If Obama can get his proposals through Congress, the affable economist will have a lasting memorial in the Volcker Rule.
  • (20) He described O'Brien as a "very affable, warm and hospitable" man who was always unafraid to speak his mind.

Gracious


Definition:

  • (a.) Abounding in grace or mercy; manifesting love,. or bestowing mercy; characterized by grace; beneficent; merciful; disposed to show kindness or favor; condescending; as, his most gracious majesty.
  • (a.) Abounding in beauty, loveliness, or amiability; graceful; excellent.
  • (a.) Produced by divine grace; influenced or controlled by the divine influence; as, gracious affections.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) When asked if climate scientists get sick of being asked about records by headline hungry media, he graciously laughed, and said: "For a particular month there is very little significance.
  • (2) Earlier Labour's interim leader, Harriet Harman, told the first post-election meeting of the (PLP) to be "gracious" in defeat.
  • (3) 'I couldn't imagine a worse scenario than not enjoying being Thor, because it's gonna consume a good 10 years of my life' Hemsworth, a gentle giant who seems both grateful and gracious, talks passionately about Thor, with no winking and no weariness.
  • (4) The first tweet was a Qu'ranic phrase in Arabic, meaning: "In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful."
  • (5) The leader of the opposition, Bill Shorten, who sponsored similar legislation earlier this year, deserves credit for pushing the issue forward, and even greater credit for his graciousness in standing aside for the cross-party bill.
  • (6) Over the past year, facilitated by the steering group of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network we were invited through email, personal study, and virtual conferencing, to begin considering how we might live out, with urgency and in hope, the Fifth Mark of Mission “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.” Our reflections entered a new depth when, in February 2015, ACEN chair Archbishop Thabo Makgoba graciously hosted a face to face meeting in South Africa.
  • (7) "McElderry took his defeat graciously, saying: "Fair play to the guys who have organised the Facebook campaign – it's been exciting to be part of a much-hyped battle and they definitely deserve congratulations.
  • (8) * Christine spelled 'defense' and 'offense' in the American style, but I graciously changed them to proper English for her.
  • (9) I always thought The Kumars and Goodness Gracious Me could never have appeared on any other channel; they were BBC2 products.
  • (10) if this was to have been his last game for New York – and possibly the last of his career – he was gracious enough to leave the limelight to the victors.
  • (11) Nina Wadia, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar in the BBC2 comedy sketch show Goodness Gracious Me.
  • (12) On stage with Iggy Pop (left) and Ricky Gardiner (centre) in 1978: ‘Back then he was very spontaneous.’ Photograph: Getty Images But he's a very normal, gracious person.
  • (13) It adds: "As we pursue this community-based approach to school construction, Raising Malawi would like to graciously return the land in Chinkhota granted to us by the government for the original Raising Malawi Academy for Girls project."
  • (14) Djokovic, who remains world No1 was gracious in defeat.
  • (15) "We were graciously received by His Royal Highness, who responded in these terms 'What the bloody hell are you doing here?'
  • (16) As late as 2012, the gracious address contained flecks of modernising reform – the (largely delivered) move to abolish male primogeniture in the monarchy and the (entirely aborted) effort at electing the Lords.
  • (17) The Zona Rosa was fashioned by the city's europhile elite after the revolution; they named its streets after European cities, and built gracious European residences for themselves and the émigrés among them.
  • (18) The Goodness Gracious Me team are reuniting to do a one-off special, we're all very happy to be back together, to commemorate the show and BBC2.
  • (19) He was gracious about Romney, talking not only about his challenger but his father, the former governor of Michigan.
  • (20) It was the Afro-Caribbean Goodness Gracious Me, but before that show.