adjective
Other Word Forms
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reusabilitynoun
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reusablenessnoun
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reuseabilitynoun
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reuseablenessnoun
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unusablenessnoun
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unuseablenessnoun
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usabilitynoun
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usablenessnoun
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useabilitynoun
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useablenessnoun
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nonreusableadjective
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nonreuseableadjective
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nonusableadjective
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nonuseableadjective
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reusableadjective
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reuseableadjective
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unusableadjective
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unuseableadjective
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unusablyadverb
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unuseablyadverb
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usablyadverb
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useablyadverb
Etymology
Origin of usable
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.
Vocabulary lists containing usable
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.
Motivations include saving money, giving items to charity and disgust at how often perfectly usable items are being consigned to waste - or a combination of all three.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
Its chip-manufacturing technology is gaining traction with customers and producing better yields, he said, referring to the amount of usable chips that come from a single wafer.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026
Boyle Heights resident Margarita Amador, the neighborhood council’s secretary, said she wants the park to be “protected, safe and usable for the community.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026
Although gut microbes can generate additional usable energy, the amount absorbed directly from food in the upper digestive tract also matters.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026
The method provided only relative distances, not absolute distances, but even so it was the first time that anyone had come up with a usable way to measure the large-scale universe.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
