predictable
Americanadjective
-
able to be foretold or declared in advance.
New technology allows predictable weather forecasting.
-
expected, especially on the basis of previous or known behavior.
His complaints are so predictable.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of predictable
First recorded in 1815–25; predict ( def. ) + -able ( def. )
Explanation
If you can predict it, I predict you'll call it predictable. In other words, anything that you can see or know before it happens is predictable. When she got out the fine china early in Act I, you could just tell the stuff would be smashed in Act III. It was all too predictable. Given the facts of their lives, the end of their relationship was predictable: he was married, and so was she, but not to each other. The roots of the word are fun to analyze: pre- means "before," dict means "to say," and able means, well, "able." Put them together, and you'll see that predictable means "able to be said before (it happens)" or, simply, something you know of before it happens.
Vocabulary lists containing predictable
-able
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The Egypt Game
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Words to Describe a Movie
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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 geopolitical bottleneck has a clearance condition: a stable, predictable export framework that both the executive branch and Congress are willing to enforce consistently.
From MarketWatch • May 21, 2026
Most of the time, solitons behave in a steady and predictable way, producing regular pulses similar to a heartbeat.
From Science Daily • May 21, 2026
“A deal is a deal, and the EU honors its commitments,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on X. “Together, we can ensure stable, predictable, balanced, and mutually beneficial transatlantic trade.”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 20, 2026
They don’t really think about, ‘hey, how do I consume on a very predictable basis?’
From Barron's • May 20, 2026
And now that she was doing something difficult and familiar and never quite predictable, namely lying, she felt a sort of mastery again, the same sense of complexity and control that the alethiometer gave her.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
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.
