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thinkable

thinkable

2 4.4
Something you can imagine happening
  • adjective
  • /ˈθɪŋkəbl/
translation icon : pensable
  • For people in rural areas, part-time work is not even thinkable.
  • become thinkable
  • even thinkable

For these kinds of conflicts to be solved is for the unthinkable to become thinkable.

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Examples

  • For non-Jewish Danes, the rescue story made the Jews thinkable; it resolved the contradiction between homogeneity and ethnic diversity in Denmark by making the Jews an emblem of Danish tolerance.

    Academic text (1998)
  • We tried every watering method thinkable.

    Academic text (1996)
  • People were saying and doing things that were not thinkable at the time.

    Blog text (18)
  • And here is the point: according to the underground man, suffering is not even thinkable in the Crystal Palace.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Taiwan, Singapore, and Australia, to take just three examples, can do far more against potential opponents than would have been thinkable 30 years ago.

    Academic text (1996)
  • The longer he remains a player, the more thinkable his ascension to greater heights becomes.

    Academic text (2011)
  • However, one thing was clear: what had been unthinkable before Sept. 11 suddenly became thinkable.

    Academic text (2001)
  • In a landscape where nothing officially exists (otherwise it would not be 'desert'), absolutely anything becomes thinkable and may consequently happen.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Before the climate summit, many solutions that seemed impossible became thinkable.

  • After years of research, a cure for the disease is now thinkable for scientists.

Synonyms

possible
vsthinkable
1.0

Able to happen or be achieved

is about being imaginable in the mind rather than actual occurrence
imaginable
vsthinkable
62 3.6

Possible to think of in your mind

is about being able to be conceived as a possibility
conceivable
vsthinkable
62 4.6

Possible to imagine or believe

is about imagining something as a possible notion rather than proving it
cogitable
vsthinkable
8.7

Able to be thought of or imagined

is about being imagined as a possible idea or option
fanciable
vsthinkable
  • Archaic
8.1

People can imagine it as real or true

is used for imagining something as a real possible idea

Antonyms

89 5.7

Impossible to imagine or accept as an option

How Conceivable

thinkable
2 4.4
conceivable
62 4.6
inconceivable
46 7.4

Surface Forms

thinkable positive
thinkabler comparative
thinkablest superlative

Morphology

thinkable = think (transparent) = think + able

The adjective is directly formed from the verb 'think' with the productive suffix '-able', yielding 'able to be thought/imagined'.

Etymology

Thinkable is simply think + -able, where -able means 'able to be'. A helpful way to remember it is to think of words like readable or believable: thinkable means 'able to be thought' or 'imagined', so it describes something you can picture or see as possible.