Convertible

How to spell convertible

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce convertible

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does convertible mean?

1. adjectiveAble to be changed into a different form, function, or currency.
2. nounA car with a roof that can be folded down or removed.

Convertible in a sentence

• adjective

  The sofa is convertible into a spare bed for overnight guests.

• noun

  They rented a red convertible for the drive along the coast.

• adjective

  These loyalty points are convertible into cash or flight discounts.

• noun

  She lowered the roof of her convertible as soon as the sun appeared.

Where does convertible come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb convertere, which meant 'to turn around' or 'to transform', formed from con-, an intensifying prefix, and vertere, meaning 'to turn'. The same vertere root turns up across English in words such as 'reverse', 'divert', and 'version', which all share the underlying idea of turning. Latin produced the adjective convertibilis for something that could be changed into another form, and English borrowed the word through Old French during the late 1300s, at first in religious and abstract senses of being changed or transformed. The motoring sense, a car whose roof can be folded down, is a much later development that arose in the twentieth century, extending the old idea of something that can be turned into a different form. The spelling trap lives in the ending: it is -ible, not -able, a clue preserved from the Latin convertibilis rather than from any English -able pattern.

How the word is built

• con- (together, intensive)
• vert (from Latin vertere: to turn)
• -ible (able to be)