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.
In a letter to the Times, Wright said the 1736 FCC rented the apartment for its CEO because it was a more predictable expense compared with one-off hotel stays for her visits to L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
That makes for some concentrated and predictable holdings in large technology-oriented names, such as Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Alphabet, which owns Google.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026
Payouts follow a relatively predictable timetable, and the policies typically last about a decade, compared with about three to five years for fixed-rate annuities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
It's just been more driveable and more predictable.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
