surmountable

[ser-moun-tuh-buhl]

adjective

1. (of a difficulty or challenge) able to be overcome; manageable.

   The task of reducing corruption is daunting, to say the least, but the challenges are surmountable.

2. (of a physical barrier or high place) able to be climbed or to be gotten past or over.

   The low mountain range acts as a surmountable geographical barrier between the two regions, allowing access but still creating regional identities.

Other Word Forms

• surmountableness noun
• unsurmountable adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of surmountable¹

surmount ( def. ) + -able ( def. )

Example Sentences

Zemeckis’ best picture winner is part of a long Hollywood tradition of looking at bigotry and segregation as all but solved or surmountable due to the grace and benevolence of individual white people.

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Ordeals, such as they are, tend to be minor and surmountable; notions that everything is lost amount of misunderstandings.

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The hill was surmountable, in my view, with a more compelling narrative and a bolder, more transformative set of ideas.

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“If you believe you have the capacity to cope, you transform stress into a surmountable challenge,” says James Gross, a psychology professor at Stanford University who researches emotion regulation.

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And then, if that playoff gap isn’t more surmountable midweek, deal more players by Friday.

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