Comparable

How to spell comparable

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce comparable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does comparable mean?

1. adjectiveAble to be likened to something else because of shared qualities; roughly equivalent or similar.

Comparable in a sentence

• The two flats are comparable in size and rent.

• Her salary is comparable to that of senior colleagues.

Where does comparable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb comparare, meaning 'to pair together' or 'to match', which was built from the prefix com- 'together' and par, an adjective meaning 'equal'. The literal idea was of placing two things side by side as equals to see how they measure up. The related form comparabilis described something that could be matched or set against another, and English took the word in through Old French in the late 1400s. The same par root for 'equal' still lives in everyday words such as 'par', 'parity', and 'peer', which all carry that sense of one thing being level with another. The spelling trap is that the modern word keeps the single 'r' of par before the -able ending, and the stress falls on the first syllable, which can tempt writers to mishear the middle vowels.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• par (equal, from Latin par 'equal')
• -able (able to be)