Imaginable

How to spell imaginable

10 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce imaginable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does imaginable mean?

1. adjectiveAble to be pictured in the mind or thought of as possible.

Imaginable in a sentence

• The planners weighed every imaginable outcome before signing the contract.

• The resort offered every imaginable comfort for its guests.

Where does imaginable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb imaginari, meaning 'to form a picture in the mind' or 'to fancy', which was built on the noun imago, meaning 'image, likeness, or copy'. Late Latin produced the adjective imaginabilis for something that could be pictured or conceived, and English took this in during the late Middle Ages, partly through Old French. The core idea has stayed remarkably stable: if a thing is imaginable, the mind is able to form an image of it. The same imago root sits behind familiar relatives such as 'image', 'imagine', and 'imagination', and noticing that shared 'imagin' stem is the surest guard against the common slip of writing the ending as -ible rather than -able. Because the suffix attaches to the recognisable English word 'imagine' (dropping the final e), the safe rule is to keep -able.

How the word is built

• imagin- (from Latin imago: image, likeness)
• -able (capable of being)