Laudable means deserving praise — it describes the thing being praised. Laudatory means expressing praise — it describes the words or tone doing the praising. A laudable effort earns praise; a laudatory speech delivers it.
The core difference
Laudable is praiseworthy; laudatory is full of praise.
- laudable — deserving praise, especially for good intentions, even if the result falls short: the scheme had a laudable aim but almost no funding.
- laudatory — expressing or full of praise: the review was laudatory, calling the debut album a triumph.
How to tell them apart
Both words come from the Latin laudare, "to praise", so the overlap in meaning is real — but they sit on opposite sides of the act of praising. Something laudable is worthy of praise, whether or not anyone actually praises it: an attempt can be laudable even if it fails. Something laudatory is doing the praising itself, such as a laudatory review, speech, or letter.
A simple test is to ask who is doing the praising. If the word describes the person or effort being judged favourably, it's laudable. If it describes the language used to praise, it's laudatory.
