''genial'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904152658-00-⌔

genial - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

genial (comparative more genial, superlative most genial)

• Friendly and cheerful; enlivening.
  • ✤ a genial glow
  • ✤ Such a face was calculated to awaken not only the calm sentiment of esteem, the distant one of admiration, but some feeling more tender, genial, intimate—friendship, perhaps, affection, interest.¹
  • ✤ This genial girl, like her brother, was in the grand situation of having no home and of carrying on life, such a splendid kind of life, by successive visits to relations; […].²
  • ✤ There had been the shine of candles, and the laughter of the women, the old Judge’s genial humor.³
  • ✤ George Relph plays the part of the Vicar of the Parish, a railway enthusiast, who becomes amateur engine driver, with Sir Godfrey Tearle (the Bishop) as his fireman, while Stanley Holloway is the genial toper who provides the cash to buy the line.⁴
  • ✤ [Abdullah] Shami, a genial and open-faced man of forty-five, greeted me warmly.⁵
  • ✤ Last month, Tucker Carlson’s genial interview with the white nationalist Nick Fuentes detonated a bomb that further fractured the Trump-era conservative movement he once helped galvanize.⁶
• (especially weather) Pleasantly mild and warm.
  • ✤ * genial warmth*
  • ✤ We met other families on the Long Walk, enjoying like ourselves the return of the genial season.⁷
• (uncommon) Marked by genius.
  • ✤ Men of genius have so often attacht the highest value to their less genial works.⁸
  • ✤ About fifty years later, in 1675, the Danish astronomer Ole Roemer (1644-1710) had the genial idea of using astronomical rather than terrestrial distances.⁹
• (archaic, originally) Pertaining to marriage; nuptial.
  • ✤ the genial bed¹⁰
• (archaic, by extension) Contributing to, or concerned in, propagation or production; generative; procreative; productive.
  • ✤ Creator Venus, genial power of love.¹¹
  • ✤ The well breath’d youth, hot-mettled, and flush with genial juices, was now fairly in for making me know my driver.¹²
  • ✤ In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners and the progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet above each baker’s oven; where the pavement smoked as if its stones were cooking too.¹³
  • ✤ The all-generating powers and genial heat/Of Nature, when she strikes thro’ the thick blood/Of cattle, […]¹⁴
• (uncommon, obsolete) Belonging to one’s genius or natural character; native; natural; inborn.
  • ✤ natural incapacity and genial indisposition¹⁵
• (uncommon, Roman mythology) Relating to or resembling a genius (Roman tutelary deity).

Adjective

genial (not comparable)

• (anatomy) Relating to the chin; genian.

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French génial, borrowed from Latin geniālis (“of or pertaining to marriage; festive”), from genius (“guardian spirit”) + -ālis.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈdʒiːnɪəl/
• (General American) IPA: /ˈd͡ʒinjəl/, /-ni.əl/
• Audio (General American): 🔊
• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -iːnɪəl
• Hyphenation: ge‧ni‧al

Etymology 2

From Ancient Greek γένειον (géneion, “chin”) + -al.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /dʒɪˈnʌɪəl/, /-ˈniːəl/
• (General American) IPA: /d͡ʒəˈnaɪəl/, /-ˈni.əl/
• Rhymes: (General American) -aɪəl
• Hyphenation: ge‧ni‧al

Printed 2026-09-04.

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Footnotes

1. 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC: ↩

2. 1913, Henry James, A Small Boy and Others ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

3. 1920, Temple Bailey, The Trumpeter Swan ‎${}^{[2]}$: ↩

4. 1953 March, Baynham Honri, “Filming “The Titfield Thunderbolt””, in Railway Magazine, page 164: ↩

5. 2001 July 9, Jeffrey Goldberg, “Letter From Gaza: The Martyr Strategy”, in The Atlantic ‎${}^{[3]}$: ↩

6. 2025 November 15, Robert Draper, “Once He Was ‘Just Asking Questions.’ Now Tucker Carlson Is the Question.”, in The New York Times ‎${}^{[4]}$, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC: ↩

7. 1826, [Mary Shelley], The Last Man. […], volume, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC: ↩

8. 1826, Julius Hare, Guesses at Truth by Two Brothers: ↩

9. 2003, Laura Fermi, Gilberto Bernardini, Galileo and the Scientific Revolution, Courier Dover Publications, page 111: ↩

10. 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a] nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a] nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC: ↩

11. 1700, [John] Dryden, Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC: ↩

12. 1749, [John Cleland], “”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC: ↩

13. 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 85: ↩

14. 1868, Alfred Tennyson, “Lucretius”, in The Complete Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson, Chicago, Ill.: The Dominion Company, published 1897, →OCLC, page 777: ↩

15. 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC: ↩