What's the difference between amiable and genial?

Amiable


Definition:

  • (a.) Lovable; lovely; pleasing.
  • (a.) Friendly; kindly; sweet; gracious; as, an amiable temper or mood; amiable ideas.
  • (a.) Possessing sweetness of disposition; having sweetness of temper, kind-heartedness, etc., which causes one to be liked; as, an amiable woman.
  • (a.) Done out of love.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The Normandie Design is plum in the middle of the amiable chaos of South American city life, in Santa Efigênia, where the streets are thronged with tiny electronics stores – great if you fancy a fake Chinese iPhone.
  • (2) Graf said that the idea of partnerships - such as technology sharing and bolstering regional and local news by other broadcasters - raised the question of when "amiable cooperation becomes anti-competitive cartel".
  • (3) An amiable and professional friendship was quickly established between myself and the nursing staff that was based on mutual respect.
  • (4) Let's amble amiably together, towards the announcement.
  • (5) But on the whole "Eck" is amiable, making time for reporters, giving spot interview after spot interview, chatting to anyone who catches his attention, whether from a major UK paper or a Netherlands radio station he has never heard of, all very different from the increasingly tightly controlled appearances of UK leaders.
  • (6) Further on, an Emirati sheikh chatted amiably with an Iraqi MP wanted on charges of terrorism.
  • (7) And it continues today, the discourse and the amiable discord, by turns legalistic, linguistic, poetic, artistic, metaphysical, practical, transcendental, earthy, comedic.
  • (8) Amiable, wise and pink-cheeked, with the same taste for the finer things we have witnessed in certain popes – let us remember Benedict’s red leather loafers – it’s all but impossible, once you’ve read his new novel, not to imagine how fabulous he would look in a white zucchetto , with a cape to match, and a socking great ring on his finger for journalists to kiss as they try desperately not to reveal the sin of envy in his presence (before he was a million-selling novelist, Harris was a hack just like them – and me).
  • (9) Ochola, an amiable man, insists that he has written to the ministry of energy to plead Katine's case, but has had no joy.
  • (10) Small children adored this highly coloured quartet of amiable toddler-people.
  • (11) My housemate was an amiable soul named Herbert Pocket.
  • (12) His exclamatory sock-cymbal sound, often played at the turning point in a theme, or at the close, appeared to be struck with a dismissive blow like a boxer's right cross, and would be all the more arresting for its contrast with Jones's general demeanour of happiness in his work, smiling fit to bust, unleashing a stream of effusive - and highly rhythmic - chortles and grunts, sometimes eyeballing his partners with baleful amiability from the drum stool while intensifying the pressure, as if baiting them into bigger risks.
  • (13) His maternal grandfather was the amiably colourful mayor of Boston, John Francis Fitzgerald, the child of immigrants and the first Irish Catholic to achieve such power in the then-English – or "Boston Brahmin" – dominated-political landscape of New England.
  • (14) (Las Vegas's current mayor, the amiably savvy Oscar Goodman, made his reputation as a lawyer defending mobsters.)
  • (15) Only in much later life did his fondness for the place grow as he became an occasional and amiable visitor to it.
  • (16) In one penalty area, Richard Dunne and Thierry Henry sit chatting in what seems genuinely like a very amiable fashion.
  • (17) In an alternate reading, the snarl-up was not designed to punish the amiable Sokolich but New Jersey senate leader Loretta Weinberg, whose district is in Fort Lee, because she blocked Christie's supreme court nominees.
  • (18) The critical course of the terminal phases of the cancer-patient needs a cautious and amiable attendment.
  • (19) GCHQ, he says, is seen as "a club of amiable gentlemen in shabby tweed jackets," probably still fighting the Nazis.
  • (20) "It was a very … interesting time," he says amiably, with the benefit of 14 years' reflection.

Genial


Definition:

  • (a.) Same as Genian.
  • (a.) Contributing to, or concerned in, propagation or production; generative; procreative; productive.
  • (a.) Contributing to, and sympathizing with, the enjoyment of life; sympathetically cheerful and cheering; jovial and inspiring joy or happiness; exciting pleasure and sympathy; enlivening; kindly; as, she was of a cheerful and genial disposition.
  • (a.) Belonging to one's genius or natural character; native; natural; inborn.
  • (a.) Denoting or marked with genius; belonging to the higher nature.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) What's more, his genial stiffness and shy self-awareness give him a kind of awkward dignity compared to the preening smugness of Cruz.
  • (2) Statues portray him riding a horse in triumph or genially waving to the tour groups waiting to see his museum.
  • (3) (A little later, I watch director Foley ask a genially menacing professor Capaldi to lift, and lift, and lift, the needle from a record in, I think it was, 12 different ways, to get it just so; I think "stickler" is fair.)
  • (4) He has generally been appreciated by journalists for his accessibility and geniality – and, as Guardian readers and Thought for the Day listeners to Radio 4's Today programme know, his ability to present a coherent and challenging message cogently and to deadlines.
  • (5) Sentencing him at Preston crown court, Anthony Russell QC said Hall was known to the public for his genial personality but had a darker side.
  • (6) Review of all available information indicates that conservative management is the treatment of choice for fractures of genial tubercles.
  • (7) It’s called the Green party, so let’s not sink together, let’s sail together!” Johnson, the genial former Republican governor of a Democratic state, New Mexico, was popular in office, lowering state taxes, expanding jobs and attracting more businesses.
  • (8) Thomson swiftly raised the stakes with more investment and commercial drive; but David welcomed the arrival of this genial newcomer with pebble glasses who was prepared to give his editors independence: and he was furious when the paper published a critical profile of Thomson while he was on holiday.
  • (9) The nearest he had got to show business was appearing, with the encouragement of his genial Uncle Lew, at the Rex Cinema, Haslemere , Surrey, for a Sunday afternoon talent concert.
  • (10) Wasn’t it unbecoming of the man dubbed the new Terrence Malick to direct scenes with genial tokers discussing pioneering methods of joint construction , or hookah-puffing sex-pest wizards ?
  • (11) Herpes simplex virus was isolated from 30 of 57 patients clinically diagnosed as suffering from a herpetic or herpetic-like genial infection for a virological incidence rate of 0.31%.
  • (12) "This game is being played like a school ground game of First-to-Ten-Goals-Wins, and Big Phil is looking on like the genial master thinking 'boys will be boys'," writes Justin Kavanagh.
  • (13) But despite sharp intelligence, willingness to put in 18-hour work days, and a genial, low-key manner, Wolfowitz has never before held a leadership position.
  • (14) With a huge open fireplace in the middle of the dining room, this is a where to come for "carne alla griglia" – huge T-Bone steaks, veal and lamb chops, spit-roasted rabbit, chicken and pork – expertly prepared by the genial owner, Derio Vezzier.
  • (15) A case of spontaneous fracture of hypertrophied genial tubercles is reported.
  • (16) Standing next to a freshly planted bed of onions, potatoes, garlic and collard greens, Covington is a genial soul with gentleness built into a giant physical frame that could play American football.
  • (17) During one of the shorthand breaks, I’m tapping out an email on my phone when I hear a voice say: “Where are you from?” He’s polite, genial, complimentary about the Guardian’s coverage, charming in a brittle sort of way, and it’s probably unfair that I feel a bit as if he’s asked which school I went to.
  • (18) Over lunch at Liverpool's Adelphi Hotel, Mac played the genial host with a dash of the elder statesman.
  • (19) A film and pop music buff, D'Ancona is witty, genial and fogeyish.
  • (20) For Donald Trump it will be a weekend of relaxation in familiar surroundings, a round of golf with the Japanese prime minister on his beloved south Florida course and an opportunity to play the genial host at the exclusive members-only Palm Beach club that Trump has dubbed the “winter White House”.