# solvable
## English
### Alternative forms

* solvible (obsolete)

### Etymology

From solve +‎ -able. Piecewise doublet of soluble.

### Pronunciation

* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Adjective

solvable
* Capable of being solved.
    Synonym: soluble
    Antonyms: unsolvable, insolvable, insoluble
    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:
** 1732, Henry Home, Lord Kames, “Beneficium cedendarum actionum”, in Essays upon Several Subjects in Law‎, Edinburgh, page 19: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.
** 1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 17, in The Mayor of Casterbridge‎, volume 1, London: Smith, Elder, page 211: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.
** 2010, Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question‎, New York: Bloomsbury, Part 1, Chapter 4, p. 97:This is a mystery that is solvable with a phone call.
** (mathematics) various senses relating to terminating sequences or computability:
*** (group theory, of a group) Having terminating derived series; see Solvable group on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
*** (Galois theory, of a Galois extension) Having a Galois group which is solvable.
*** (Lie theory, of a Lie algebra) Having terminating derived series (this is a distinct notion from the derived series of a group); see Solvable Lie algebra on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
** (computer science, of a decision problem) Such that the set of inputs for which the answer is yes is recursively enumerable.
    Coordinate terms: computable, decidable
* (obsolete) Capable of being dissolved or liquefied.
    Synonym: soluble
    Antonyms: unsolvable, insolvable, insoluble
** 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:
* (obsolete) Able to pay one's debts.
    Synonym: solvent
** 1655, Thomas Fuller, “Section 4”, in The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI), page 131:[…] although imprisonment was imposed by law on persons not solvable, yet officers were unwilling to cast them into goale,
** 1703, John Dennis, A Proposal for Putting a Speedy End to the War‎, London: Daniel Brown and Andrew Bell, page 19:The Government is solvable in case of Loss, whereas private Men often fail;
* (obsolete, rare) Capable of being paid and discharged.
    solvable obligations

#### Derived terms

* solvable group
* solvableness
* insolvable
* unsolvable

#### Related terms

* solvability

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ Webster’s International Dictionary of the English Language, Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam, 1907, Volume 2, p. 1370,

## French
### Etymology

From Latin solvere +‎ -able.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sɔl.vabl/
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

solvable (plural solvables)
* solvent
    Antonym: insolvable

#### Related terms

* soluble

### Further reading

* “solvable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.