Viable

How to spell viable

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce viable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does viable mean?

1. adjectiveCapable of working successfully or worth pursuing as a practical option.
2. adjectiveAble to live, grow, or develop under normal conditions, as a fetus, seed, or organism.

Viable in a sentence

• The committee rejected the proposal because it was not financially viable.

• The doctors confirmed the fetus was viable at twenty-four weeks.

• Solar power is now a viable alternative to the old diesel generator.

• Only a handful of the frozen seeds remained viable after a decade in storage.

Where does viable come from?

Language of origin: French

Viable came into English in the early 1800s straight from French viable, meaning 'capable of living'. The French word was built on vie, 'life', which descends from the Latin vita, also 'life', the same root that survives in English words such as 'vital' and 'vitamin'. It was first used in a strictly biological sense, describing a newborn or a seed that could actually survive on its own. Over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the meaning widened from physical survival to figurative survival, so a plan, a business, or an option could be called viable if it had a realistic chance of working or lasting. The spelling keeps the French shape intact, which is why the trap is the unstressed middle: writers must remember the 'i' of the 'vi' root before the smooth '-able' ending.

How the word is built

• vi- (from Latin vita: life)
• -able (capable of, suitable for)