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Glite Dictionary
🌊 Can wear away 💔 Can weaken
erodable

erodable

6.0
Something that loses strength or support over time
  • adjective
  • /ɪˈroʊdəbl/
translation icon : erodible
  • The constant pressure of urban development has left many ecosystems erodable, threatening biodiversity.

Examples

  • Over time, unchecked pollution can create erodable environments that harm both people and wildlife.

  • The invasion of new species can lead to erodable landscapes where native plants struggle to survive.

  • Just as concentrations of wealth push the poor onto marginal, easily erodable lands, so does the drive for profit demolish our oxygen-producing forests and put carcinogenic pesticides and preservatives into our food.

    Academic text (1993)

Synonyms

shakeable
vserodable
1 4.6

Easily made less certain, for example a person's belief or confidence

is gradually weakened or reduced over time rather than suddenly
erodible
vserodable
  • Specialized
1 6.8

Something that water, wind, or chemicals can wear away

is weakened over time in a figurative, non physical way rather than physically

How Erodable

eroded
3.9
erodable
6.0
vulnerable
581 4.0
stable
473 2.3

Surface Forms

erodable positive

Morphology

erodable = erode (semi-transparent) = erode + able

Morphologically transparent as 'erode' + '-able', but the sense is a metaphorical extension to non-physical weakening, which may not be immediately obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Erodable comes from the same Latin parts e- 'out' and rodere 'to gnaw', and a helpful way to remember it is to imagine trust or rules being slowly 'gnawed away', which is why the word also means something that can be weakened over time.