Word.ws English Dictionary

beable

/ˈbiː.əbl/

beable noun: anything that could possibly be, in particular in any of a number of superimposed quantum states.

Noun

beable (plural beables)

  1. (quantum theory) anything that could possibly be, in particular in any of a number of superimposed quantum states
    • 1984 J. S. Bell: Beables for Quantum Field Theory CERN-TH.4035/84,
      In particular we will exclude the notion of “observable” in favour of that of “beable”. The beables of the theory are those elements which might correspond to elements of reality, to things which exist. Their existence does not...
    • In line with the approach to value definiteness taken by modal interpretations, I will also not be requiring that the beables of a quantum system be the same from one quantum state of the system to another.1999, Michael Redhead, From Physics to Philosophy, page 17

Proper noun capitalized: Beable

Beable

  1. A surname.

Forms of beable

pluralbeables

Origin of beable

From be + -able; coined by Northern Irish physicist John Stewart Bell in 1984 in partial analogy to "observable".

Questions about beable

What does beable mean?
Beable means anything that could possibly be, in particular in any of a number of superimposed quantum states.
What part of speech is beable?
Beable can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce beable?
Beable is pronounced /ˈbiː.əbl/.
What is the plural of beable?
The plural of beable is beables.

Words near beable in the dictionary

  1. be-togaed
  2. be-toppered
  3. be-tuxed
  4. be4
  5. BEA
  6. beable
  7. beables
  8. Beabout
  9. Beabouts
  10. beabull
  11. beacause

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beable (page history and authors); Beable (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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