reducible

American  

[ri-doo-suh-buhl, -dyoo-] / rɪˈdu sə bəl, -ˈdyu- /

adjective

1. capable of being reduced.

2. Mathematics.

   1. of or relating to a polynomial that can be factored into the product of polynomials, each of lower degree.

   2. of or relating to a group that can be written as the direct product of two of its subgroups.

   3. of or relating to a set whose set of accumulation points is countable.

---

Other Word Forms

• nonreducibility noun
• nonreducible adjective
• nonreducibly adverb
• reducibility noun
• reducibleness noun
• reducibly adverb
• unreducible adjective
• unreducibly adverb

Etymology

Origin of reducible

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; reduce, -ible

Example Sentences

Still others argue the underlying assumption here may be mistaken—that consciousness may not be reducible to computation at all.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 25, 2026

"These properties are not tied to individual tasks or brain networks, but are characteristics of the system as a whole, shaping every cognitive operation without being reducible to any one of them."

From Science Daily • Mar. 3, 2026

An understanding that our most consequential actions are largely overdetermined, meaning not reducible to a single motivation.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 4, 2024

As Indigenous people have always known, consciousness is not reducible to mathematical calculations, it's embodied, interconnected and inseparable from the matter that is life.

From Salon • Jul. 29, 2023

But there was still that memory moving round the edges of his consciousness, something strongly felt but not reducible to definite shape, like an object seen out of the comer of one’s eye.

From "1984" by George Orwell