Word.ws English Dictionary

passable

US/ˈpæsəbəl/

passable adjective: that may be passed or traversed.

Adjective

passable (comparative more passable, superlative most passable)

  1. That may be passed or traversed.
  2. Tolerable; adequate; no more than satisfactory.
    • The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are...2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
    • AIs are no longer just producing passable five-paragraph essays. Now they’re excelling at the SAT, “earning” a score of 1410.2023 March 21, Ian Bogost, “Is This the Singularity for Standardized Tests?”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2023
    Synonyms:
    satisfactory
  3. able to "pass", or be accepted as a member of a race, sex or other group to which society would not otherwise regard one as belonging.
    • The idea of something, or someone, being unusual and sexual is intoxicating. I concluded that if I ever met a very passable transsexual and we were attracted to one another, I'd go bisexual and pursue the relationship.2014, Paul Stryker, Confessions of a Sex Offender, page 33

passable meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

passable in Tamil

ஏற்றுக்கொள்ளத்தக்க, கடக்கத்தக்க

passable in Bengali

চলাচলের যোগ্য, মোটামুটি গ্রহণযোগ্য

passable in Malayalam

നടക്കത്തക്ക, സുഗമമായ, വിശ്വസിക്കാവുന്ന, കടക്കത്തക്ക, സഹിക്കാവുന്ന

passable in Kannada

ತೃಪ್ತಿಕರವಾದ, ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬಹುದಾದ, ತಕ್ಕಮಟ್ಟಿನ, ದಾಟಬಲ್ಲ, ಬಳಸಬಹುದಾದ

Examples of passable in a sentence

  • It's a passable substitute, but it will never measure up to the original.
  • In those days the North Pass was the only entryway to the valley that was passable by cart or wagon traffic.
  • She kept her eyes low, and though her Twi was passable, she rarely spoke it.

All 15 example sentences with passable

Synonyms of passable

Forms of passable

comparativemore passable
superlativemost passable

Origin of passable

From French passable, equivalent to pass + -able.

Words formed from passable

Questions about passable

What does passable mean?
Passable means that may be passed or traversed.
What is passable in Tamil?
Passable in Tamil is ஏற்றுக்கொள்ளத்தக்க, கடக்கத்தக்க. See Passable meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is passable?
Passable is an adjective.
How do you pronounce passable?
Passable is pronounced /ˈpæsəbəl/ (US).

Words near passable in the dictionary

  1. pass-words
  2. pass.
  3. pass/fail
  4. pass/no pass
  5. passability
  6. passable
  7. passableness
  8. passably
  9. passacaglia
  10. passacaglias
  11. passacaille

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: passable (page history and authors); passable (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); passable (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); passable (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); passable (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-passable.wav.

Cite this entry: “passable.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/passable. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.