Usable

How to spell usable

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce usable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does usable mean?

1. adjectiveAble to be used; fit or available for a practical purpose.

Usable in a sentence

• After the repair, the old printer was finally usable again.

• Only half of the storage space in the loft is actually usable.

Where does usable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from the verb 'use' plus the productive adjective suffix '-able', which comes from the Latin '-abilis', meaning 'capable of being' or 'fit for'. The root 'use' itself reached English in the 1200s through Old French 'user', which descended from the Latin verb 'uti', meaning 'to make use of' or 'to employ'. The adjective 'usable' is recorded from around the 1400s in the sense 'fit to be used'. There is a competing spelling, 'useable', that keeps the silent 'e' of 'use', but the standard modern form drops that 'e' before the suffix, which is the spelling trap: writers must remember to delete the final 'e' of 'use' the way one does in 'movable' and 'likable'. The same Latin 'uti' also gave English the words 'utility' and 'utensil', which is a useful memory anchor for the bare 'us-' stem.

How the word is built

• us- (from use, from Latin uti 'to use')
• -able (adjective suffix: capable of being)