adj
Meaning 1
Able to be observed.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- The strange new star was at the edge of the observable universe.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
observable
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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Australian, UK: /əbˈzɜː.və.bəl/
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Australian, UK: [əbˈzɜː.və.bɫ̩]
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Canada, US: /əbˈzɝ.və.bəl/
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Canada, US: [əbˈzɝ.və.bɫ̩]
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CMU ARPABET: AH0 B Z ER1 V AH0 B AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adj
Meaning 2
Deserving to be observed; worth regarding; remarkable.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
Any physical property that can be observed and measured directly and not derived from other properties.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics
Examples
- Temperature is an observable but entropy is derived.
- In quantum mechanics, observables correspond to Hermitian operators. Also, they act a lot like random variables. Taking their expected value one may recover something resembling a classical observable.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 4
capable of being seen or noticed
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- a discernible change in attitude
- a clearly evident erasure in the manuscript
- an observable change in behavior
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: discernible, evident
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
Etymology tree English observe Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-dhlom Proto-Indo-European *-dhlis Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English observable From observe + -able.
Across languages
Translations
22 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: видим (vidim) — able to be observed
- Bulgarian: забележим (zabeležim) — able to be observed
- Catalan: observable — able to be observed
- Czech: pozorovatelný — able to be observed
- Dutch: observeerbaar — able to be observed
- Esperanto: observebla — able to be observed
- Finnish: havaittavissa oleva — able to be observed
- Finnish: havaittava — able to be observed
- French: observable — able to be observed
- German: beobachtbar — able to be observed
- Hindi: प्रेक्षणीय (prekṣaṇīya) — able to be observed
- Hungarian: megfigyelhető — able to be observed
- Italian: osservabile — able to be observed
- Polish: obserwowalny — able to be observed
- Portuguese: observável — able to be observed
- Russian: наблюда́емый (nabljudájemyj) — able to be observed
- Russian: обозри́мый (obozrímyj) — able to be observed
- Spanish: observable — able to be observed
- Bulgarian: забележителен (zabeležitelen) — deserving to be observed
- Finnish: huomionarvoinen — deserving to be observed
- French: observable — any physical property
- German: Observable — any physical property
Real reading context