Identifiable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Able to be recognized or distinguished from other things or people
2. Capable of being recognized or singled out among various entities or individuals
3. Possible to identify or determine uniquely from a group of others without difficulty

Etymology: "Identifiable" is a plain combination of two English parts: the verb "identify" and the suffix "-able," which marks something that can be done to it. So an identifiable thing is one that can be identified, or in plain terms, easy to spot. The suffix has the longer story. It descends from a Proto-Indo-European root for a kind of ability, passed through Italic and Latin forms such as "-bilis" and "-ābilis," which meant "capable of being" or "fit for." Old French carried it into the language as "-able," and Middle English borrowed it in that form, where it became one of the most productive endings in English, able to attach to a verb almost anywhere. "Identify" itself was formed from Medieval Latin "identificare," a combination of Latin "idem" ("same") and "facere" ("to make"), so to identify something is literally to make it the same as something already known. The adjective inherits that sense: a thing that can be made recognisable as a known thing.

Synonyms: recognizable, discernible, detectable, observable, distinguishable

Antonyms: unidentifiable, indistinct, inconspicuous, hidden, ambiguous