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comparable

[kom-per-uh-buh l or, sometimes, kuh m-pair-]
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adjective
  1. capable of being compared; having features in common with something else to permit or suggest comparison: He considered the Roman and British empires to be comparable.
  2. worthy of comparison: shops comparable to those on Fifth Avenue.
  3. usable for comparison; similar: We have no comparable data on Russian farming.
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Origin of comparable

1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin comparābilis, equivalent to comparā(re) to compare + -bilis -ble
Related formscom·pa·ra·bil·i·ty, com·pa·ra·ble·ness, nouncom·pa·ra·bly, adverbin·ter·com·pa·ra·ble, adjectiveun·com·pa·ra·ble, adjectiveun·com·pa·ra·ble·ness, nounun·com·pa·ra·bly, adverb
Can be confusedcomparable comparative

Synonyms

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1. like, equal, equivalent, similar.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for comparably

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Even tobacco and liquor were present in comparably liberal quantities.

    Gone Fishing

    James H. Schmitz

  • The gentry society was, therefore, a comparably stable society with little upward social mobility but with some downward mobility.

  • We cannot apprehend an object as sublime while we apprehend it as comparably, measurably, or finitely great.

    Oxford Lectures on Poetry

    Andrew Cecil Bradley

  • Not comparably to your ladyship; you are the very Cynthia of the skies, and queen of stars.

  • Unlike the peoples of the great Asiatic and European folk-wanderings, they found no comparably developed peoples to bar their way.

    The Coming of Coal

    Robert W. Bruere

British Dictionary definitions for comparably

comparable

adjective
  1. worthy of comparison
  2. able to be compared (with)
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Derived Formscomparability or comparableness, nouncomparably, adverb
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

Word Origin and History for comparably

comparable

adj.

early 15c., from Middle French comparable, from Latin comparabilis "capable of comparison," from comparare (see comparison). Related: Comparably; comparability.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper