sayable

American  

[sey-uh-buhl] / ˈseɪ ə bəl /

adjective

1. of the sort that can be said or spoken; utterable.

   He felt a great deal that was not sayable.

2. capable of being said or stated clearly, effectively, etc..

   The speech is as sayable today as when Demosthenes first composed it.

---

Other Word Forms

• unsayable
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of sayable

First recorded in 1855–60; say ¹ + -able

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sayable

Or the New York Times’s Ezra Klein, that harbinger of the obvious becoming sayable to liberals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025

The problem isn’t that all this isn’t true; it’s that these and many other “insights” into music and culture are not only sayable but have been said, very often and more persuasively.

From New York Times ● Jul. 10, 2020

With seemingly the entire state on high alert, literally waiting to see which way the wind would blow, the idea of the California Dream felt utterly exhausted, ironic, sayable only between air quotes.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 11, 2019

Not in the public square: The Overton window of sayable ideas hasn’t just shifted, it’s gone.

From Slate ● Jun. 19, 2018

There is a certain kind of detail that is best confided to this sanctuary, and Miss Mordaunt's difficulty seems to have been in realising when all the sayable things had been said.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, June 17, 1914 by Sir Owen Seaman