adj · 9 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
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
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Received-Pronunciation:/ˈsɒlvəbəl/
General-American:/ˈsɑlvəbəl/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
CMU ARPABET:S AA1 L V AH0 B AH0 L
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
adj
Meaning 1
Capable of being solved.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
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:
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.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: soluble
Antonyms: unsolvable, insolvable, insoluble
2
adj
Meaning 2
Capable of being solved.
various senses relating to terminating sequences or computability:
Having terminating derived series; see Solvable group on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: group-theory, mathematics, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: soluble
Antonyms: unsolvable, insolvable, insoluble
3
adj
Meaning 3
Capable of being solved.
various senses relating to terminating sequences or computability:
Having a Galois group which is solvable.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: Galois theory
Topics: mathematics, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: soluble
Antonyms: unsolvable, insolvable, insoluble
4
adj
Meaning 4
Capable of being solved.
various senses relating to terminating sequences or computability:
Having terminating derived series (this is a distinct notion from the derived series of a group); see Solvable Lie algebra on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: Lie theory
Topics: mathematics, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: soluble
Antonyms: unsolvable, insolvable, insoluble
5
adj
Meaning 5
Capable of being solved.
Such that the set of inputs for which the answer is yes is recursively enumerable.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: soluble
Antonyms: unsolvable, insolvable, insoluble
6
adj
Meaning 6
Capable of being dissolved or liquefied.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
Examples
1664, John Chandler (translator), Van Helmont’s Works, London: Lodowick Lloyd, A Treatise of Fevers, Chapter 8, p. 971, [...] they administer Pearles, and Corrals being beaten to dust or dissolved in distilled vinegar, or the juice of limons, and again dryed, and solvable in any potable liquour:
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: soluble
Antonyms: unsolvable, insolvable, insoluble
7
adj
Meaning 7
Able to pay one's debts.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: solvent
Antonyms: none provided
8
adj
Meaning 8
Capable of being paid and discharged.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, rare
Examples
solvable obligations
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
9
adjective satellite
Meaning 9
capable of being solved
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
such problems are perfectly solvable
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: resolvable
Antonyms: none provided
History
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.
Across languages
Translations
30 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Armenian:
լուծելի
(luceli)
— capable of being solved
Czech:
řešitelný
— capable of being solved
Esperanto:
solvebla
— capable of being solved
Finnish:
ratkeava
— capable of being solved
French:
résoluble
— capable of being solved
German:
lösbar
— capable of being solved
Hebrew:
פתיר
(pathir)
— capable of being solved
Hungarian:
megoldható
— capable of being solved
Hungarian:
megfejthető
— capable of being solved
Japanese:
解決できる
(kaiketsu dekiru)
— capable of being solved
Japanese:
解ける
(tokeru)
— capable of being solved
Japanese:
割り切れる
(warikireru)
— capable of being solved
Polish:
rozwiązywalny
— capable of being solved
Polish:
rozwiązalny
— capable of being solved
Portuguese:
solúvel
— capable of being solved
Romanian:
plătibil
— capable of being solved
Romanian:
solvabil
— capable of being solved
Russian:
решаемый
(rešajemyj)
— capable of being solved
Spanish:
soluble
— capable of being solved
Spanish:
solucionable
— capable of being solved
Swedish:
lösbar
— capable of being solved
Finnish:
liukeneva
— ''(obsolete in English)'' capable of being dissolved
French:
soluble
— ''(obsolete in English)'' capable of being dissolved
German:
löslich
— ''(obsolete in English)'' capable of being dissolved
Japanese:
溶かせる
(tokaseru)
— ''(obsolete in English)'' capable of being dissolved
Polish:
rozpuszczalny
— ''(obsolete in English)'' capable of being dissolved
Romanian:
solubil
— ''(obsolete in English)'' capable of being dissolved
Romanian:
dizolvabil
— ''(obsolete in English)'' capable of being dissolved
Spanish:
soluble
— ''(obsolete in English)'' capable of being dissolved
Swedish:
löslig
— ''(obsolete in English)'' capable of being dissolved
