Both laudable and laudatory derive ultimately from Latin laud- or laus, meaning "praise." Laudable and laudatory differ in meaning, however, and usage commentators warn against using them interchangeably. Laudable means "deserving praise" or "praiseworthy," as in "laudable efforts to help the disadvantaged." Laudatory means "giving praise" or "expressing praise," as in "a laudatory book review." People occasionally use laudatory in place of laudable, but this use is not considered standard.
Improving the schools is a laudable goal. you showed laudable restraint in dealing with that ridiculously demanding customer
Recent Examples on the WebFixing the problem of access to insurance, especially for catastrophic events, is laudable, but focusing on insurance as the means to lowering cost and improving outcomes misses the forest for the trees. Rita Numerof, Forbes, 3 Aug. 2022 Seeking new audiences by making the telecast more entertaining is a laudable and important goal, but this cannot be achieved by demeaning the very crafts that, in their most outstanding expressions, make the art of filmmaking worthy of celebration. Josh Rottenberg, Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2022 The Titans have done a laudable job surviving their injuries in the secondary, and the offense is a different animal with A.J. Brown and Julio Jones on the field together. Scott Horner, The Indianapolis Star, 29 Oct. 2021 The Kinder also does a laudable job of contextualizing other key Houston artists within the broader art world. Michael Agresta, Travel + Leisure, 4 July 2021 That’s a laudable goal, but actions need to match the rhetoric. Stephanie Murphy, WSJ, 1 Aug. 2022 And while any progress on gun reform is laudable—and the law is likely to have some impact on gun access—the most important impact of the law will be felt elsewhere. Abdul El-sayed, The New Republic, 7 July 2022 Technologies that are not just powerful but agile such that IT teams can build resilient, proactive infrastructure - a laudable goal indeed! Patrick Moorhead, Forbes, 16 June 2022 Really, Lemoine was admitting that he was bewitched by LaMDA—a reasonable, understandable, and even laudable sensation. Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 14 June 2022 See More