Reversible

How to spell reversible

10 letters · 4 syllables

5 of the 21 people asked to spell reversible in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

The most common mistake is reversable. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

reversable reversible

What people typed instead

• reversable5 people

How to pronounce reversible

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reversible mean?

1. adjectiveCapable of being turned back, undone, or used in the opposite way.

Reversible in a sentence

• The new jacket is reversible, so it can be worn with either side showing.

• The surgeon explained that the procedure is fully reversible if complications arise.

Where does reversible come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb vertere, which simply meant 'to turn'. Adding the prefix re-, meaning 'back', produced revertere, 'to turn back' or 'to come back', whose past participle stem reversus gives us the family of English words built on revers-. English took 'reverse' from Old French in the 1300s, and the adjective 'reversible', meaning 'capable of being turned back or undone', was formed by attaching the suffix -ible, which signals 'able to be'. The same vertere root turns up across a surprising range of everyday words, including 'convert', 'divert', 'version' and 'vertigo'. The spelling trap lies in that ending: it is -ible rather than -able, a distinction that follows the Latin pattern but offers no audible clue, since both endings sound like an unstressed 'uh-bul'.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• vers (from Latin vertere: to turn)
• -ible (able to be)