Available

How to spell available

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce available

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does available mean?

1. adjectiveAble to be obtained, used, or accessed when needed.

Available in a sentence

• The new model is now available in three colours.

• The doctor is only available on weekday mornings.

Where does available come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word grows from the Latin verb valere, which meant 'to be strong' or 'to be worth', the same root that gives us 'value', 'valid' and 'prevail'. In medieval English a verb 'avail' developed through Old French, meaning 'to be of use or benefit', built on that idea of being worth something. By the 1400s English had attached the suffix -able to produce 'available', at first meaning 'capable of producing benefit' or 'advantageous'. Over the following centuries the sense narrowed to the modern idea of something being obtainable, accessible, or ready for use. The spelling trap lies in the middle: the unstressed vowel in 'avail' sounds like a schwa, so writers can lose track of the single l, and the ending is -able rather than -ible, a choice that catches many fluent adults.

How the word is built

• a- (intensive prefix, from Latin ad-)
• vail (worth, value, from Latin valere 'to be strong, be worth')
• -able (capable of being)