CONGENIAL

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(used of plants) capable of cross-fertilization or of being grafted

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

compatible (able to exist and perform in harmonious or agreeable combination)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Suitable to your needs

Example:

two congenial spirits united...by mutual confidence and reciprocal virtues

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

sociable (friendly and pleasant)

Also:

compatible (able to exist and perform in harmonious or agreeable combination)

friendly (characteristic of or befitting a friend)

sympathetic (expressing or feeling or resulting from sympathy or compassion or friendly fellow feelings; disposed toward)

Antonym:

uncongenial (not suitable to your tastes or needs)

Derivation:

congeniality; congenialness (compatibility between persons)

Credits

Context examples:

Between ourselves, the recent cases in which I have been of assistance to the royal family of Scandinavia, and to the French republic, have left me in such a position that I could continue to live in the quiet fashion which is most congenial to me, and to concentrate my attention upon my chemical researches.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But, his joy received a sudden check; for within five minutes, he returned in the custody of a sheriff “s officer, informing us, in a flood of tears, that all was lost. We, being quite prepared for this event, which was of course a proceeding of Uriah Heep's, soon paid the money; and in five minutes more Mr. Micawber was seated at the table, filling up the stamps with an expression of perfect joy, which only that congenial employment, or the making of punch, could impart in full completeness to his shining face. To see him at work on the stamps, with the relish of an artist, touching them like pictures, looking at them sideways, taking weighty notes of dates and amounts in his pocket-book, and contemplating them when finished, with a high sense of their precious value, was a sight indeed.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When the detective departed, my friend rose and made his preparations for the day’s work with the alert air of a man who has a congenial task before him.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had no pleasure in thinking, any more, of the grave old broad-leaved aloe-trees, which remained shut up in themselves a hundred years together, and of the trim smooth grass-plot, and the stone urns, and the Doctor's walk, and the congenial sound of the Cathedral bell hovering above them all.