liable
/ˈlaɪ̯əbəl/adjective
liable is spelled L-I-A-B-L-E. The wrong spelling people search most is lible: about 250 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Liable is an adjective meaning “Bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable”.
How many letters and syllables are in liable?
| Letters | 6: L-I-A-B-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 7.8 times per million words; the 8,417th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, lible, about 250 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell liable?
Liable is spelled L-I-A-B-L-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for liable in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is liable?
Liable appears 7.8 times per million words in written English, the 8,417th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce liable?
- /ˈlaɪ̯əbəl/
- [ˈlaɪ̯əbɫ̩]
- [ˈlaɪ̯əbəɫ]
Liable has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-liable.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with liable?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as liable.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: labile.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of liable
- more liable comparative
- most liable superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does liable mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable.
The surety is liable for the debt of his principal.
- 2
Subject; susceptible; prone.
This crime is liable to imprisonment for life.
- 3
Exposed to a certain contingency or causality, more or less probable.
Electronic devices are liable to malfunction when exposed to extreme heat.
- 4
Likely.
Someone is liable to slip on your icy sidewalk.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Liable in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | responsable , sujet, susceptible |
| German | fehlbar, haftbar, haftend, haftpflichtig , neigend, unterworfen |
| Portuguese | responsável , passível |
| Spanish | responsabilizado, responsabilizable , propenso, tendente, tendiente, proclive |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does liable come from?
From Old French lier (“to bind”), from Latin ligō, ligāre (“to bind, to tie”). Compare typologically Russian обя́занный (objázannyj), обяза́тельный (objazátelʹnyj) (akin to вяза́ть (vjazátʹ)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).