viability
Americannoun
-
ability to live, especially under certain conditions.
The viability of a fetus outside the womb has increased dramatically with the advent of new technologies and procedures.
-
the capacity to operate or be sustained.
The viability of the company was guaranteed by the success of its new product.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of viability
First recorded in 1820–30; vi(able) ( def. ) + -ability ( def. )
Explanation
The noun viability means the quality of being able to happen or having a reasonable chance of success. The viability of holding your party at a restaurant might depend on how many guests they can seat. Viability comes from the Latin root vita, meaning "life." So the noun viability also refers to something's capacity to live and grow. When your dog has a litter of puppies, you can't help wondering about the viability of the tiniest one, but if you feed him with an eyedropper and keep him warm, he might make it.
Vocabulary lists containing viability
The Scoop on Net Neutrality
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The Last Lecture
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Vocabulary from the Ninth Republican Debate, February 13, 2016
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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.
Early on, she said, industry insiders questioned the viability of the “Screen Time” concept.
From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 2026
Now there was virtually no chance the fetus’s lungs would develop to reach the edge of viability in seven weeks.
From Salon • May 27, 2026
"We now have a better understanding of the economic viability of this resource that can be mapped to hydrogen deposits around the world that are both already known and yet to be discovered."
From Science Daily • May 20, 2026
This impasse “raises concerns over the viability of the fragile cease-fire and casts doubt over the prospects of a peace deal,” Tradu.com’s senior market analyst Nikos Tzabouras says in an email.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 17, 2026
His claims provoked a widespread concern with the replication of his experiments precisely because the viability of Aristotelian orthodoxy was now at stake.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
