alienable
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does alienable mean? Yes, alienable is a word, but it’s rarely used. It means able to be sold or transferred. It’s opposite, inalienable, is much more common. Inalienable is used to describe things, especially rights, that cannot be taken away, denied, or transferred to another person. Inalienable means the same thing as unalienable, which is no longer in common use. However, unalienable is closely associated with the phrase unalienable rights due to its appearance in the U. S. Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”Thomas Jefferson actually used inalienable in early drafts of the Declaration of Independence, but the spelling was changed for the final draft. Unalienable was the preferred spelling until around the 1830s, but inalienable has completely replaced it in regular use. Example: We work to make the founders’ words true—that human rights are in no way alienable.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of alienable
1605–15; < French, Middle French aliė́nable from aliė́ner “to sell, transfer” from Latin aliēnāre “to transfer by sale” ( see alien) + -able
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.
Besides a pocket-handkerchief he had but one thing alienable.
From A Rough Shaking by George MacDonald
A man's character, it will be argued, is an alienable personal possession.
From Determinism or Free-Will? by Chapman Cohen
These lands were exempt from taxation, and, although they were not alienable, the right to occupy them passed from father to son with the obligation to military service.
From A History of Rome to 565 A. D. by Arthur Edward Romilly Boak
Every man may engage his services and his time; but he cannot sell himself; his person is not an alienable property.
From The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Volume III. 1791-1804 by Thomas Paine
Lands, according to this instrument, were free and alienable; the freemen of a corporation held them, but claimed no right of distribution.
From The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 From Discovery of America October 12, 1492 to Battle of Lexington April 19, 1775 by Julian Hawthorne
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.
