This week we continue our vocabulary-building series, “The Closing Word.” Each week we provide a new word to help build your vocabulary and show you how to specifically implement it in business. A well-spoken, intelligent agent inspires confidence with clients and colleagues alike.
This week’s closing word:
Pronounced: (am-ICK-uh-buhl)
Adjective:
Characterized by friendship and good will
Synonyms:
friendly, good-natured, cordial, easy, easygoing, neighborly, harmonious, cooperative, civilized, nonconfrontational
Amicable is often confused with amiable. Amicable is correctly used when it describes connections between people, or groups of people, especially when one might expect the relationship to be hostile or unfriendly. (Think: “It turned out to be an amicable divorce.”)
Amiable, on the other hand, tends to describe the friendliness of a single person, though it can also refer to a tone of voice or other agreeable quality.
Vocabulary.com offers this helpful tip to remember the difference between amicable and amiable:
“Amicable refers to the connections between people or things, like a friendly situation with a crowd. Take out the “c” for crowd and you’re left with amiable, one friendly person.”
Examples:
“The buyers and the sellers remained amicable during the offer and counter-offer process, and I felt certain we’d have a deal soon.”
vs. “amiable”:
“The seller was an amiable single mother of two young children, and always seemed in good spirits despite her busy schedule.”
