Determinables

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Things that can be determined or established; variables or quantities in mathematics and logic that can take on multiple specific values; characteristics or properties capable of being specified or identified
2. Entities or attributes subject to determination or resolution; elements in mathematical contexts that may assume various values; qualities that can be precisely defined or known
3. Items or features that can be fixed or decided upon; symbolic representations in academic disciplines denoting values that are not fixed but can be set; identifiable aspects capable of precise specification

Etymology: "Determinables" is the plural of "determinable," which is formed from "determine" plus the suffix "-able." The suffix traces back through Old French "-able" to Latin "-abilis" (from "-ābilis"), a Latin adjective-forming ending meaning capable of being or able to be, which is ultimately rooted in the same Proto-Indo-European material that gave Latin "habere," to have, though that deeper link is only a remote ancestor of the suffix itself. The base "determine" carries the main sense of the word. It comes from Latin "determinare," meaning to bound, limit, or fix an end, built from "de-" and "terminus," boundary. That literal idea of marking a boundary explains why a determinable thing is one whose limits or value can be fixed. The mathematical sense, a quantity that may take various values, grows naturally from this: a variable is something whose boundaries are not yet set.

Synonyms: determinable, definable, decidable, resolvable, settleable

Antonyms: indeterminable, undefinable, uncertain, ambiguous, unsolvable