observable

[uhb-zur-vuh-buhl]

adjective

1. capable of being or liable to be observed; noticeable; visible; discernible.

   an observable change in attitude.

2. worthy or important enough to be celebrated, followed, or observed.

   an observable holiday.

3. deserving of attention; noteworthy.

observable

1. A measurable property of a physical system, such as mass or momentum. In quantum mechanics, observables correspond to mathematical operators used in the calculation of measurable quantities. Operators that do not commute, having a nonzero commutator, correspond to observables that cannot be precisely measured at the same time, such as momentum and position.

2. See also uncertainty principle

Other Word Forms

• observability noun
• observableness noun
• observably adverb
• nonobservable adjective
• nonobservably adverb
• unobservable adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of observable¹

1600–10; < Latin observābilis remarkable, equivalent to observā ( re ) to observe + -bilis -ble

Example Sentences

To be clear, this is an invented statistic with no basis in reality, which ignores the observable fact that humans find each other attractive for all sorts of different reasons.

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This structure increased the brightness of dark excitons by an extraordinary factor of 300,000, making them clearly observable and allowing their behavior to be precisely controlled.

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"Either we'll confirm that dark matter leaves an observable trace -- or we'll learn something entirely new about the Milky Way itself."

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With this approach, scientists can begin charting atmospheric differences across many exoplanets observable by JWST, much as ground-based telescopes once documented Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its banded clouds.

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Theorists predict that this geometry can amplify signals of symmetry violation enough to make them potentially observable.

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Related Words

• appreciable 
• detectable www.thesaurus.com
• discernible 
• noticeable 
• perceptible