Conceivable

How to spell conceivable

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce conceivable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does conceivable mean?

1. adjectiveCapable of being imagined, believed, or thought possible.

Conceivable in a sentence

• Every conceivable excuse was tried before the deadline passed.

• It is hardly conceivable that the figures were correct.

Where does conceivable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adjective is built on the verb conceive plus the suffix -able, meaning 'capable of being'. Conceive itself came into English in the 1300s through Old French concevoir, which descended from the Latin verb concipere, literally 'to take in' or 'to take together', formed from con- 'together' and capere 'to take or grasp'. The same capere root quietly powers a whole family of English words, including capture, receive, perceive and accept, all of which involve some kind of taking or grasping. The original Latin sense of physically taking something in branched into two ideas English still keeps: becoming pregnant (taking a child into the womb) and grasping an idea in the mind. Conceivable settles on that mental sense, describing whatever the mind can grasp or imagine. The spelling trap is the buried -ceive, which follows the 'i before e except after c' pattern, giving ei rather than ie after the c.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• -ceive (from Latin capere: to take, grasp)
• -able (capable of being)