Skip to content
Allin

capable

adjectivecommon in dialogue

  • Canada//ˈkeɪ.pə.bəl//
  • Canada/[ˈkʰeɪ̯.pə.bɫ̩]/
  • //ˈkeɪ.bə.bəl//

Able and efficient; having the ability needed for a specific task; having the disposition to do something; permitting or being susceptible to something.

adjective

  1. 1

    Able and efficient; having the ability needed for a specific task; having the disposition to do something; permitting or being susceptible to something.

    She is capable and efficient.

    He does not need help; he is capable of eating on his own.

    As everyone knew, he was capable of violence when roused.

    That fact is not capable of proof.

  2. 2

    obsoleteOf sufficient capacity or size for holding, containing, receiving or taking in; accessible to. Construed with of, for or an infinitive.

    The place chosen was the cathedral church, capable of about 400 persons.

    [...] deſignation only to thoſe things, which have parts, and are capable of increaſe or diminution [...]

    Again, I farther obſerve, that as man is a compound being, ſo this renders him capable of ſeveral diſtinct kinds of pleaſure [...]

    He has begun a road capable of a wheel-carriage.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French capable, from Late Latin capābilis.

Forms

comparative
more capable
superlative
most capable
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).