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Synonyms

usable

American  
[yoo-zuh-buhl] / ˈyu zə bəl /
Or useable

adjective

  1. available or convenient for use.

    2000 square feet of usable office space.

  2. capable of being used.

    That saw is no longer usable.
usable British  
/ ˈjuːzəbəl /

adjective

  1. able to be used

"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

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of usable

1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French; see use, -able

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.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing usable

Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -able, -ible

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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.

Usable foreign reserves would be about $30 billion, said Zahid Hussain, a former chief economist of the World Bank’s Dhaka office.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 22, 2022

My guest today is Deborah Landau, author of “The Uses of the Body” and “The Last Usable Hour,” both Lannan Literary Selections.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 30, 2018

Usable square feet is that part of your commercial rental space that only you will be using.

From Encyclopedia.com • Mar. 1, 2018

Usable transparency demands a more abstract and higher-level description of what’s important about the bot: more “restaurant inspection score”–style than unreadable spaghetti code.

From Slate • Apr. 2, 2014

Usable roads were wanting, so that the transport could not approach near to the Battalion.

From The Story of the "9th King's" in France by Roberts, Enos Herbert Glynne

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.