Definitions

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

  • adjective Being such that listening is pleasurable.

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

  • adjective Pleasant or easy to listen to.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

listen +‎ -able

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word listenable.

Examples

  • Even the heaviest, most aggressive, anti-mainstream music artists of the time strove for melody and recognized the limitations of "listenable", rebelling from the Top 40 and appealing to outsider kids with high-pitched solos and vocals, reasonable amounts of distortion, loud drums, minor chords, and dissonant note and chord progressions.

    Cyberpunk JackMangan 2005

  • Even the heaviest, most aggressive, anti-mainstream music artists of the time strove for melody and recognized the limitations of "listenable", rebelling from the Top 40 and appealing to outsider kids with high-pitched solos and vocals, reasonable amounts of distortion, loud drums, minor chords, and dissonant note and chord progressions.

    Archive 2005-03-01 JackMangan 2005

  • Veckatimest and incredible "listenable" quality shared by few other new albums this year.

    The Tech - MIT's Student Newspaper 2010

  • 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong goes for the big, "listenable" numbers.

    50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong - reviews page 2004

  • And so "Collapse Into Now" is eminently listenable.

    Album review: R.E.M., "Collapse Into Now" 2011

  • To my ears, "Ascension" is actually more conventional and more listenable than "Chasin' the Trane" and many of the further-out tracks on Coltrane's 1961 Village Vanguard tapes.

    The Jazz Scene: Sultry Styles and 50 Years of the Rumble Will Friedwald 2011

  • Will this highly listenable, 11-track collection do anything to change Cake from a cult band with a devoted audience to wise sages of idiosyncratic rock worthy of widespread attention and hosannas from the blogosphere?

    Album review: Cake, "Showroom of Compassion" Patrick Foster 2011

  • Brand Nubian's 1990 debut, "One for All," demonstrated that alternative hip-hop could be politically charged and highly listenable.

    Hip-Hop Heroes, Alt-Rockers and Some Dark Angels Andy Beta 2011

  • Set on Labor Day weekend in 1988, it seems content to poke fun at the clothes -- a cross between early MTV and Miami Vice (which was conceived as "MTV cops") -- and to package some of the more listenable (if inconsequential) music of the era around a joke-challenged romantic story.

    Marshall Fine: HuffPost Review: Take Me Home Tonight Marshall Fine 2011

  • And so "Collapse Into Now" is eminently listenable.

    Album review: R.E.M.'s 'Collapse Into Now' is settled into familiar formula 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.