renewable

[ri-noo, -nyoo]

adjective

1. able to be renewed.

   a library book that is not renewable.

noun

1. something that is renewable.

renewable

1. Relating to a natural resource, such as solar energy, water, or wood, that is never used up or that can be replaced by new growth. Resources that are dependent on regrowth can sometimes be depleted beyond the point of renewability, as when the deforestation of land leads to desertification or when a commercially valuable species is harvested to extinction. Pollution can also make a renewable resource such as water unusable in a particular location.

2. Compare nonrenewable

Other Word Forms

• renewability noun
• nonrenewable adjective
• unrenewable adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of renewable¹

First recorded in 1720–30; renew + -able

Example Sentences

"These findings may help design efficient artificial photosynthetic systems capable of converting solar energy into chemical fuels, contributing to innovative and sustainable renewable energy solutions."

Read more on Science Daily

"If you want to install any technology investment like AI data centres, keep in mind hydroelectric power is both renewable and steady," says Paraguayan software development entrepreneur Sebastian Ortiz-Chamorro.

Read more on BBC

They are critical to manufacturing everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to military hardware and renewable energy technology but produced and processed almost exclusively by China.

Read more on Barron's

Another is that human brains are fashioned from completely renewable biological materials, unlike computers and robots, which are built from iron, silicon and other minerals whose extraction requires yet more energy.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

They are critical to manufacturing everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to military hardware and renewable energy technology.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• inexhaustible 
• sustainable