reusable

British  

/ riːˈjuːzəbəl /

adjective

1. able to be used more than once

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Explanation

Something is reusable if it can be used more than once. Since you can wash a cloth napkin after you use it, it is reusable. Toilet paper? Not reusable. Many cities now encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags to stores, instead of having groceries and other goods put in plastic bags that are usually thrown away after a single use. Reusable is a word you'll often see alongside words like recyclable, renewable, or sustainable, in an environmentally conscious context. It comes from the "again" prefix re- and usable.

Example Sentences

He was widely viewed as a relentless technologist, bringing electric vehicles into the mainstream as the head of Tesla while also developing revolutionary reusable rocket technology at SpaceX.

From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026

Mine are dishwasher- and freezer-safe, endlessly reusable and organized in a way that makes actual meal prep feel possible.

From Salon • Apr. 21, 2026

But even the marvel of private spaceflight—SpaceX and its reusable Falcon 9 rocket or Blue Origin—rests in the long shadow of the Apollo missions.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026

In the 1980s, we heard about the space shuttle, a reusable spacecraft that would be used for Earth-to-orbit missions, including eventually to the International Space Station.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026

I go into our new apartment’s tiny kitchen to fill my reusable water bottle.

From "A Soft Place to Land" by Janae Marks