navigable
Americanadjective
-
deep and wide enough to provide passage to ships.
a navigable channel.
-
capable of being steered or guided, as a ship, aircraft, or missile.
-
Computers. designed or arranged in a way that facilitates moving from web page to web page or from one section to another on a website.
adjective
-
wide, deep, or safe enough to be sailed on or through
a navigable channel
-
capable of being steered or controlled
a navigable raft
Other Word Forms
- navigability noun
- navigableness noun
- navigably adverb
- nonnavigability noun
- nonnavigable adjective
- nonnavigableness noun
- nonnavigably adverb
- unnavigability noun
- unnavigable adjective
- unnavigableness noun
- unnavigably adverb
Etymology
Origin of navigable
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin nāvigābilis, equivalent to nāvigā(re) “to sail” ( see navigate) + -bilis -ble
Explanation
If you can get your ship through, then both the ship and the waterway are navigable. If people of average intelligence could wade their way through the federal tax code without help, the IRS would be navigable. Alas. On the other hand, the New York City subway system is quite navigable, as are any of its functioning trains. If one can get through a passageway or system, it is considered navigable. Likewise, if a truck, car, boat, plane, train, or other vessel can be steered then it, too, is navigable.
Vocabulary lists containing navigable
Power Suffix: -able
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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.
The WSV said it's difficult to say when the river will become fully navigable, as temperatures are expected to drop below freezing point again.
From Barron's • Jan. 19, 2026
It lays out specific conditions that must be met for federal jurisdiction—for instance, tributaries must have a predictable and consistent flow to navigable waters.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 19, 2025
Ben Cottam is the director of the Canal and River Trust for Wales which looks after navigable canals and waterways.
From BBC • Aug. 30, 2025
Some are navigable, as we saw in “Six Feet Under.”
From Salon • Apr. 21, 2025
When he thought that the river was navigable, José Arcadio Segundo gave his brother a detailed account of his plans and the latter gave him the money he needed for the enterprise.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
