Adjudicable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Subject to being judged or decided through legal means
2. Eligible for a determination or verdict based on presented facts
3. Able to be resolved or settled through formal judgment processes

Etymology: "Adjudicable" is formed from the verb "adjudicate" plus the suffix "-able," meaning "capable of being adjudicated." "Adjudicate" comes from Latin "adiudicare," built from "ad-" ("to") and "iudicare" ("to judge"), so the root sense is simply "to judge toward" or "to decide for." English took the verb in the early 1600s, initially in the sense of awarding something to a claimant by a formal legal or judicial decision. The adjective follows the same pattern as many other English formations that combine a verb with "-able" to say a matter can be settled by a decision. Its use is largely confined to legal and formal writing, where it describes disputes, claims, or questions that a court, arbitrator, or other authority can properly decide. Its earliest recorded uses are in the same period as the verb, though the exact dating of the adjective is less certain than that of the verb.

Synonyms: decidable, resolvable

Antonyms: indecidable