Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell reliable

Reliable is spelled R-E-L-I-A-B-L-E.

hear itre·li·a·ble/rɪ'laɪəbəl/adjectiveSchwa and roots

What it means: Able to be trusted and depended on.

In a sentence: The school bus is always reliable and on time.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear.

Same family: rely, reliably, reliability, reliant, trustworthy. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Reliable comes from the verb rely plus the suffix -able, meaning 'able to be relied on.' Rely itself comes from Old French 'relier,' meaning 'to bind together,' so a reliable person is someone you can metaphorically be 'tied' to and depend on.

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