How to Use acceptable in a Sentence

acceptable

adjective
  • She plays an acceptable game of tennis.
  • It was an acceptable performance, although not an outstanding one.
  • The key, of course, is to give your cat a place to scratch that both of you find acceptable.
    — Mary Jo Dilonardo, Treehugger, 10 Sep. 2023
  • But even 3-3 would be acceptable and keep them in the hunt.
    — Tim Bielik, cleveland, 1 Aug. 2022
  • In that case, the scrambling of words might seem to be acceptable.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2024
  • If the Heat finds an acceptable offer in the next few days, the team would take it.
    — Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 28 Jan. 2025
  • And will the language the developer wants in the ENA be acceptable to the city?
    — Jennifer Van Grove, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Mar. 2024
  • Will it be considered acceptable at the end of the day?
    — Dalton Ross, EW.com, 2 Sep. 2022
  • Rice isn’t the only acceptable venue for these crispy cubes—far from it.
    — Li Goldstein, Bon Appétit, 3 Oct. 2023
  • The point is, things are on the move, and accepting the status quo shouldn’t be acceptable.
    — Andrew Rosen, Forbes, 21 Apr. 2022
  • In Steve’s mind, buying new tools (think a welder or a miter saw) to fix things is acceptable.
    — Karen Kreider Yoder, WSJ, 2 Mar. 2023
  • But Sitake didn’t find that to be an acceptable answer.
    — Kevin Reynolds, The Salt Lake Tribune, 10 Sep. 2023
  • There is no way a war can be acceptable in the 21st century.
    — ABC News, 1 May 2022
  • So, not acceptable and just a poor performance across the board.
    — Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2022
  • Be very clear about what is and isn’t acceptable, and then be prepared to follow through.
    — Washington Post, 20 Apr. 2022
  • Gone are the days when a cold beer or a glass of wine were the only socially acceptable ways to unwind.
    — Joshua Adragna, Rolling Stone, 30 Jan. 2024
  • An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable!
    — Will McCurdy, PCMAG, 23 Feb. 2025
  • But Cuban sources told The Times that such an arrangement would not be acceptable.
    — Tracy Wilkinsonstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 25 May 2022
  • That means that the wealthy part of the world has to make ecological room for the poor to catch up to an acceptable standard of living.
    — David Marchesephoto Illustration By Bráulio Amado, New York Times, 17 July 2022
  • The shows were quite punky, in your face, anarchic and pushed the envelope of what was acceptable.
    — Chris Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 May 2024
  • And there’s the rub: when Waters stuck to rock star accoutrements that were acceptable in both the ‘80s and the present day (Guitar solos!
    — Mark Sutherland, Variety, 7 June 2023
  • Paul was not the only deserving soul left out, and a QR Code is not acceptable.
    — Megan Thomas, CNN, 13 Mar. 2023
  • The goal is to confirm the theory that a 75-decibel boom will be acceptable.
    — Jacopo Prisco, CNN, 25 July 2022
  • After the s--- Scroll and Key had pulled last year — not the drugs, of course; that was perfectly acceptable according to the rules of Lethe.
    — Nick Romano, EW.com, 12 Dec. 2022
  • They were taught that the way our hair naturally comes out of our head is not acceptable.
    — As Told To Jamie Wilson, Glamour, 17 Nov. 2023
  • Any space where the slides aren’t acceptable isn’t of interest to them anyway.
    — Ryan Lee Wong, Los Angeles Times, 28 July 2022
  • God forbid politicians or the press barons tell us what is acceptable.
    — Zack Sharf, Variety, 29 Mar. 2023
  • All of these are acceptable fabrics for a rain jacket and will certainly get the job done.
    — Olivia Avitt, Peoplemag, 3 Oct. 2023
  • But deciding what is acceptable for my eyes to see is only a small part of her guidance.
    — Irv Erdos, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Mar. 2025
  • Takeout fried chicken, whether from a grocery store deli or a reputable fast-food chain, is a perfectly acceptable item to tote to a potluck.
    — Josh Miller, Southern Living, 29 Mar. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'acceptable.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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