Aromatic polyamides exhibit high thermal stability and excellent mechanical properties but they are difficult to process because of their high softening or melting temperature and their limited solubility in organic solvents. The processing of these polymers by thermoplastic methods has been greatly hindered because they tend to degrade before or at softening or melting temperature. To make aromatic polyamides more processable, various attempts have been made to reduce their melting temperature or to improve their solubility by introducing in the polymer chain flexible groups (CH₂, O, CO, SO₂) or by the incorporation of meta-linkages in the polymer backbone. New polyamides based on phenyl, naphthalene, quinoline or diquinoline units containing in the polymer backbone flexible groups or meta linkages have been synthesised. The polyamides obtained possessed high thermal stability, excellent T_g and some of them had good solubility in aprotic solvents.