tractable

[ trak-tuh-buhl ]
See synonyms for tractable on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. easily managed or controlled; docile; yielding: a tractable child; a tractable disposition.

  2. easily worked, shaped, or otherwise handled; malleable.

Origin of tractable

1
1495–1505; <Latin tractābilis, equivalent to tractā(re) to handle, deal with (frequentative of trahere to draw) + -bilis-ble

Other words for tractable

Opposites for tractable

Other words from tractable

  • trac·ta·bil·i·ty, trac·ta·ble·ness, noun
  • trac·ta·bly, adverb
  • non·trac·ta·bil·i·ty, noun
  • non·trac·ta·ble, adjective
  • non·trac·ta·ble·ness, noun
  • non·trac·ta·bly, adverb
  • un·trac·ta·bil·i·ty, noun
  • un·trac·ta·ble, adjective
  • un·trac·ta·ble·ness, noun
  • un·trac·ta·bly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use tractable in a sentence

  • This capability of dispensing with a generally untractable element of support was felt to be a great comfort.

    The Prime Minister | Anthony Trollope
  • He again abandoned the reins of his war horse, and wrung bitterly the hands, which his mail gloves rendered untractable.

    Quentin Durward | Sir Walter Scott
  • To which of those happy propositions is your Duke so much wedded that contradiction will make him unreasonable and untractable?

    Quentin Durward | Sir Walter Scott
  • May it never be my lot to have a wise fool for my friend; nothing is more untractable.

  • I assure you that it is hard work, because these feelings of ours are such intangible, untractable things!

    Life of John Coleridge Patteson | Charlotte M. Yonge

British Dictionary definitions for tractable

tractable

/ (ˈtræktəbəl) /


adjective
  1. easily controlled or persuaded

  2. readily worked; malleable

Origin of tractable

1
C16: from Latin tractābilis, from tractāre to manage, from trahere to draw

Derived forms of tractable

  • tractability or tractableness, noun
  • tractably, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012