Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having normal physical and mental abilities; not disabled.
  • noun People with normal physical and mental abilities considered as a group.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of able.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Back-formation from disabled.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Back-formation from disabled.

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Examples

  • "Wendy", as it is a contrived name first found in a popular fiction, and given its similarity to "windy", is hardly any better -- as it suggests a verbal facility with rhetoric designed, pace Burke's conception of Dramatism and the pedant, to elide the varied and opposed interests of the so-called abled community and those of persons with disabilities.

    Readercon 16: Day 1 2005

  • It's apparently OK for a state to set health-care priorities, as long as both "abled" and disabled get equal treatment, says Michael Astrue, general counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

    Woe The Reformers 2008

  • These individuals are not so much disabled as they are differently "abled", and as such deserve a quality lifestyle where they can reach their full potential as human beings.

    Home 2009

  • wv: 'abled' as in 'disabled ranting when the Old Testament is disallowed'

    Outrage can be so context dependent, can't it? CC 2009

  • Having a team filled with like-minded and similarly-abled employees isn't ideal in today's competitive and complex world.

    6 posts from February 2010 2010

  • Having a team filled with like-minded and similarly-abled employees isn't ideal in today's competitive and complex world.

    Management 2010

  • Dear Karma Bus please run over the man who just attacked me -- physically -- for pointing out that he was parking in a disabled parking space while being perfectly abled.

    Protest the lifting of Parallel Import Restrictions karenmiller 2009

  • Having a team filled with like-minded and similarly-abled employees isn't ideal in today's competitive and complex world.

    Collaboration 2010

  • Having a team filled with like-minded and similarly-abled employees isn't ideal in today's competitive and complex world.

    e pluribus unum 2010

  • Having a team filled with like-minded and similarly-abled employees isn't ideal in today's competitive and complex world.

    e pluribus unum 2010

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