What's the difference between amiable and likable?

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.

Likable


Definition:

  • (a.) Such as can be liked; such as to attract liking; as, a likable person.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Prosocial behavior mediated the relations of gender and expressed emotions with likability (i.e., gender and expressed emotions were each related to prosocial behavior, and prosocial behavior was related to likability, but neither gender nor expressed emotions were related to likability with prosocial behavior partialled out).
  • (2) Eye-to-eye, the bumbling bonhomie appeared to be a lacquer of likability over a living obelisk of corporate power.
  • (3) I distinctly recall thinking that he was one of the most likable adults I had thus far encountered.
  • (4) Measures of likability, emotion knowledge, prosocial and aggressive behavior, peer competence, and expressed emotions (happy and angry) were obtained for 65 subjects (mean age = 44 months).
  • (5) As women become more successful, they're perceived as less likable; for men, it's the opposite.
  • (6) As expected, actors who had a good reputation or were remorseful were seen as more likable, as having better motives, as doing the damage unintentionally, as more sorry and as less blameworthy.
  • (7) Why is Adele so robustly likable, while the equally successful Taylor Swift often comes across like a wounded deer?
  • (8) Like most of the characters he has played, Bateman can get away with saying terrible things but still be incredibly likable.
  • (9) Analysis using Roter's coding scheme suggests that faculty scored students on the basis of likability rather than specific behavioral skills, limiting their ability to provide behaviorally specific feedback.
  • (10) This desire to play likable guys incurred the dislike of some critics, who found Williams' film CV too dependent on these secular saints.
  • (11) Dentist perceptions of patient sophistication and anxiety were related to several patient characteristics, but perceptions of patient likability were unrelated to patient personal and social characteristics.
  • (12) Edward the professor is likable and trustworthy, but what the party needs more of is Evangelical Ed.
  • (13) Groups of untrained judges viewed the tapes and rated their impressions of the subjects on scales of likability, speaking effectiveness, and expressivity-confidence.
  • (14) Only the female children of schizophrenics were viewed as less likable than controls.
  • (15) But although his likability, proven persistence and enforced gravitas will hold him in good stead as he embarks upon a road much harder than the one he's already travelled, he has a lot more to prove.
  • (16) Pratt got happy and fat, acknowledging that being big made the character more likable.
  • (17) PEI Aggression and Withdrawal scores were more stable in grades 3 and 5 than in grade 1, and the Likability factor was more stable in grades 2 to 5 than in grade 1.
  • (18) Finally, whereas the aggressive character was low in likability at all grades, the withdrawn character was viewed as increasingly less likable as grade increased.
  • (19) However, they were not very accurate at discerning which partners perceived them as most competent or most likable across all interactions (person accuracy).
  • (20) The comments were positive, and lovely, my “voice” being described as warm or approachable; down to earth and likable.