prehensible
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of prehensible
1825–35; < Latin prehēns ( us ) ( see prehension) + -ible
Explanation
Our mission is to make things prehensible, or understandable, to you. Whether you are physically reaching for a handle or mentally reaching for a concept, if it can be grasped, it’s prehensible. If you're struggling to "get a grip" on the meaning of this word, think about a similar word: comprehensible. Both words describe things that can be understood, or comprehended. But prehensible isn't limited to mental comprehension; it has a foot in the physical world, too. So it could be used to describe a theory that you can understand, or it could refer to a rock that you can grasp while climbing a steep mountain face.
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.
But is there any one of these qualities which should prevent his doing doubly as well in a career of honest, upright, sensible, prehensible and comprehensible things?
From The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. X (of X) - America - II, Index by Henry Cabot Lodge
They turned dim and nameless powers into definite and prehensible deities with names, and arranged them in groups so as to fall in with the life of the city as well as the farm.
From The Religious Experience of the Roman People From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus by W. Warde Fowler
We watch fuel tanks leak, backup computers go bad, life support systems malfunction and suffer through a complete range of incom- prehensible defects in the multi-billion dollar space program.
From Terminal Compromise: computer terrorism: when privacy and freedom are the victims: a novel by Winn Schwartau
The peculiar prehensible power possessed by the hand of man is chiefly dependent upon the size and power of the thumb, which is more developed in him than it is in the highest apes.
From Hygienic Physiology : with Special Reference to the Use of Alcoholic Drinks and Narcotics by Joel Dorman Steele
Now that he had met this bunch, he would ask again, and if lucky, someone might respond and actually be com- prehensible.
From Terminal Compromise: computer terrorism: when privacy and freedom are the victims: a novel by Winn Schwartau
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.
