Avoidable

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /əˈvɔɪdəbl̩/

Definitions

1. Capable of being prevented or kept from happening through careful action or planning
2. Possible to prevent or circumvent by exercising caution or foresight
3. Able to be averted or sidestepped through deliberate measures or attentiveness

Etymology: "Avoidable" is a plain case of a suffix added to an existing verb: "avoid" plus "-able", meaning "able to be avoided." The verb "avoid" came into English from Old French "esvuidier", meaning "to empty out" or "to clear out", and its original sense was literal: to void or clear a place. The sense of escaping or dodging something developed from that idea of getting clear of it. The suffix "-able" has a longer journey. It descends from Latin "-abilis", which was attached to verbs to mean "capable of being" the action they name, and it passed into Old French as "-able" before arriving in Middle English. English then used it freely on native and borrowed verbs, so "avoidable" is one of many words built on the same pattern as "readable" or "washable."

Synonyms: preventable, escapable, unnecessary, excludable, evitable

Antonyms: unavoidable, inevitable, necessary, essential, mandatory