workable

English

Etymology

From work +‎ -able.

Adjective

workable (comparative more workable, superlative most workable)

1. Capable of functioning.

   They came up with a workable solution, until they could think of something better.

   • 1945 July and August, “The Penrhyn Railway and its Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 208, photo caption:

     Penrhyn Quarry vertical-boilered 0-4-0 locomotive "George Henry," built by De Winton & Company in 1877. It is the last survivor of its class, and is still in workable condition.

   • 2021 January 27, Barry Doe, “Reservations on XC and GWR services”, in RAIL, number 923, page 58:

     The point was also made that the size and diversity of GWR's network and the number of services that are not capable of having reservations (Thames Valley, many branch lines, and so on) has meant a mandatory reservation system is not a workable system for them.

2. Able to be worked or fashioned

Antonyms

• non-workable, nonworkable
• unworkable

Translations

capable of functioning

• Bulgarian: реа́лен (bg) (reálen), осъществи́м (bg) (osǎštestvím)
• Finnish: toimiva (fi), käyttökelpoinen (fi)
• German: machbar (de), brauchbar (de), funktionsfähig (de), umsetzbar, praktikabel (de)
• Italian: praticabile (it)
• Manx: yn-obbraghey
• Polish: sprawny (pl) m, efektywny (pl) m

able to be worked or fashioned

• Bulgarian: обработваем (obrabotvaem)
• Italian: lavorabile (it), trattabile (it)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: обра̀див

  Roman: obràdiv (sh)

References

• “workable”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.