Capable

How to spell capable

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce capable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does capable mean?

1. adjectiveHaving the ability, skill, or fitness to do something.

Capable in a sentence

• She is more than capable of running the department on her own.

• The new engine is capable of towing a heavy trailer up steep hills.

Where does capable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Late Latin capabilis, meaning 'able to hold' or 'capacious', which was built on the verb capere, 'to take, seize, or hold'. English picked it up in the 1500s by way of French capable, and early uses kept the literal sense of being roomy enough to contain something before the meaning shifted to a person being competent or having the ability to do a task. The same capere root quietly powers a large family of English words, including 'capacity', 'captive', 'capture', and 'receive', so anything to do with taking or holding tends to share that ancestry. The spelling trap sits in the ending: it takes -able rather than -ible, which fits the rule that -able usually follows a complete, recognisable stem. Knowing the word comes from capere rather than a fixed Latin -ibilis form helps explain why the modern spelling settled on capable.

How the word is built

• cap- (from Latin capere: to take, hold, grasp)
• -able (able to, fit for)