Solvable

/ˈsɒlvəbəl/ · adjective

Meaning

Capable of being solved..

Definitions by Sense

1. Capable of being solved.
2. (obsolete) Capable of being dissolved or liquefied.
3. (obsolete) Able to pay one's debts.
4. (obsolete, rare) Capable of being paid and discharged.

Example Sentences

a solvable problem

1677, Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, London: William Shrowsbery, “De homine,” Chapter 2, p. 56, Intellective Memory, which I call an act of the intellective faculty because it is wrought by it, though I do not inquire how or where, because it is not solvible:

1856, Abraham Lincoln, Speech delivered before the first Republican State Convention of Illinois, Bloomington, 29 May, 1856, in Arthur Brooks Lapsley (ed.), The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, New York: The Lamb Publishing Company, Volume 2, p. 271, It is a very strange thing, and not solvable by any moral law that I know of, that if a man loses his horse, the whole country will turn out to help hang the thief; but if a man but a shade or two darker than I am is himself stolen, the same crowd will hang one who aids in restoring him to liberty.

Questions of this Nature may be easily solvable in the simple Cases.

Would Mr. Farfrae stay in Casterbridge despite his words and her father’s dismissal? His occult breathings to her might be solvable by his course in that respect.

This is a mystery that is solvable with a phone call.

1664, John Chandler (translator), Van Helmont’s Works, London: Lodowick Lloyd, A Treatise of Fevers, Chapter 8, p. 971, […] they administer Pearles, and Corrals being beaten to dust or dissolved in distilled vinegar, or the juice of limons, and again dryed, and solvable in any potable liquour:

[…] although imprisonment was imposed by law on persons not solvable, yet officers were unwilling to cast them into goale,

Synonyms for solvable

Antonyms for solvable

Related Words

Word Forms

• solvible

Usage Notes

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