Achievable

How to spell achievable

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce achievable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does achievable mean?

1. adjectiveCapable of being accomplished or brought about successfully.

Achievable in a sentence

• The manager set an achievable target for the sales team this quarter.

• Losing a small amount of weight each month is a perfectly achievable goal.

Where does achievable come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on the verb 'achieve', which English took from the Old French achever, meaning 'to bring to a head' or 'to finish'. That French verb came from the phrase 'a chief', literally 'to a head', resting ultimately on the Latin caput, meaning 'head', the same root that gives us 'captain', 'chapter' and 'capital'. The idea was that to achieve something was to bring it to its final point or culmination, just as a story reaches its head. English adopted 'achieve' in the 1300s, and the adjective 'achievable', meaning 'able to be accomplished', formed later by adding the productive suffix '-able', meaning 'capable of being'. The spelling preserves the tricky 'ie' sequence of 'achieve' (i before e here, against the rule's exceptions) and uses '-able' rather than '-ible', which are the two traps that catch writers.

How the word is built

• achieve (from Old French achever: to bring to a head, complete)
• -able (capable of being)