sayable

American  

[sey-uh-buhl] / ˈseɪ ə bəl /

adjective

1. of the sort that can be said or spoken; utterable.

   He felt a great deal that was not sayable.

2. capable of being said or stated clearly, effectively, etc..

   The speech is as sayable today as when Demosthenes first composed it.

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Other Word Forms

• unsayable
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of sayable

First recorded in 1855–60; say ¹ + -able

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sayable

Or the New York Times’s Ezra Klein, that harbinger of the obvious becoming sayable to liberals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025

With seemingly the entire state on high alert, literally waiting to see which way the wind would blow, the idea of the California Dream felt utterly exhausted, ironic, sayable only between air quotes.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 11, 2019

Kadare is still mapping out the boundaries of Albanian, a relatively recent literary language, where everything is new and newly sayable.

From New York Times ● Feb. 23, 2018

There is not only courage in refusing the very idea of forbidden statements, but also a radical brilliance in saying what you have been told not to say in order to make it sayable.

From Slate ● May 6, 2015

There is a certain kind of detail that is best confided to this sanctuary, and Miss Mordaunt's difficulty seems to have been in realising when all the sayable things had been said.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, June 17, 1914 by Seaman, Owen, Sir