pregnable

American  

[preg-nuh-buhl] / ˈprɛg nə bəl /

adjective

1. capable of being taken or won by force.

   a pregnable fortress.

2. open to attack; assailable.

   a pregnable argument.

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pregnable British  

/ ˈprɛɡnəbəl /

adjective

1. capable of being assailed or captured

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Other Word Forms

• pregnability
  noun

Etymology

Origin of pregnable

1400–50; late Middle English prenable < Middle French prenable, pregnable, equivalent to pren- (weak stem of prendre to seize, take < Latin pre ( he ) ndere; see prehension) + -able -able; -g- perhaps from obsolete expugnable (in same sense)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pregnable

Or would the 50-odd Allied divisions still in Britain mount an entirely new thrust at the demonstrably pregnable Atlantic Wall?

From Time Magazine Archive

This rule rigidly defined the Nazis' plan of action in the Balkans: cut Yugoslavia from Greece, pro-Nazi Croatia from anti-Nazi Serbia, pregnable Thrace from defensible central Greece, the tough Greeks from the tough British.

From Time Magazine Archive

Above this is heavy stone work over twelve inches thick, so that the sloping roof was the only part pregnable in an assault with the munitions of war then in use.

From Famous Firesides of French Canada by Mary Wilson Alloway

The words the Man had intoned had been placed in his still pregnable mind by the tele-teach phones and record that the last Master had prepared before death had halted his experiments.

From The Ultimate Experiment by Thornton DeKy

He had routed the Trojans and driven them within their gates, when Paris, aided by Apollo, the divine archer, shot an arrow at the hero which struck him in his one pregnable spot, the heel.

From Historic Tales, vol 10 (of 15) The Romance of Reality by Charles Morris