solvable
/ˈsɑlvəbəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.58 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
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:"
- "Questions of this Nature may be easily solvable in the simple Cases."
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
From solve + -able. Piecewise doublet of soluble. More information The mathematical senses derive from Galois theory: Galois discovered that one could determine whether a given polynomial could be solved by radicals by studying the properties of a particular group attached to a particular field extension deriving from the polynomial in question; if the group satisfies some conditions then polynomial can be solved by radicals. Any group meeting these conditions — whether or not it arises from this process — is thus called solvable, as is any field extension giving rise to such a group. The Lie-theoretic sense is by analogy, the study of Lie algebras deriving much of its terminology from group theory. In regular use by the late 19th century.
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsɑlvəbəl/
- British English: /ˈsɒlvəbəl/