Memorable means worth remembering or easy to remember. When something is memorable, it sticks in your mind long after it happens: a memorable birthday party, a memorable goal in soccer, or a memorable line from a movie you saw years ago.

What makes something memorable? Usually it's because the experience had strong emotions attached to it, or because something unusual happened, or because it mattered to you personally. Your first day at a new school might be memorable because you felt nervous and excited. A teacher's memorable lesson might involve a surprising experiment or a story that made everyone laugh. The most memorable vacation might be the one where something unexpected happened, not necessarily the fanciest one.

Writers and speakers try to make their words memorable by using vivid images, surprising facts, or powerful stories. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is memorable partly because of its opening: “Four score and seven years ago.” Shakespeare created countless memorable phrases, including “To be or not to be.”

The opposite of memorable is forgettable: something so ordinary or dull that it fades from memory almost immediately. A memorably bad performance and a memorably good one both stick with you, though for very different reasons.