adjective
Other Word Forms
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reusabilitynoun
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reusablenessnoun
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reuseabilitynoun
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reuseablenessnoun
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unusablenessnoun
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unuseablenessnoun
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usabilitynoun
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usablenessnoun
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useabilitynoun
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useablenessnoun
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nonreusableadjective
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nonreuseableadjective
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nonusableadjective
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nonuseableadjective
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reusableadjective
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reuseableadjective
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unusableadjective
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unuseableadjective
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unusablyadverb
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unuseablyadverb
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usablyadverb
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useablyadverb
Etymology
Origin of usable
Explanation
Something that's usable can be successfully used right away for its intended purpose. If your car is usable, it's running just fine. A usable tent has all of its poles and is more or less waterproof, and a usable pair of shoes fits well and doesn't have holes. Describing something as usable can sometimes be faint praise: "Well, this basketball is usable, but just barely." When information is described as usable, it usually means it's actively available, and not just stored in a computer, for example. This is a relatively new adjective, first appearing around 1840.
Vocabulary lists containing usable
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Analysts said the techniques increased the risk of errors and reduced the yield—the percentage of usable chips on a wafer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
The plan is to build the underlying infrastructure followed by “providing the greatest possible software solution for making it usable, easy, accessible and efficient,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
The profit that oil refineries make from converting crude into usable fuels is the “crack spread.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
Only a third of the masks in England's pre-pandemic stockpile were usable, while Scotland had no supplies of the top-level FFP3 masks needed by healthcare professionals.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
So when a hopeful and softspoken minister got in touch to ask if they had any usable field charts for hunting supernovae, the astronomical community thought he was out of his mind.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
