Increaseable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Capable of undergoing growth or expansion when prompted by external factors
2. Open to the potential for augmentation or enhancement beyond its current state
3. Able to become larger or greater in amount, size, or degree

Etymology: Increaseable is a plain formation: the verb "increase" plus the suffix "-able", meaning "capable of being." "Increase" itself came into English in the late 14th century, borrowed from Anglo-French "encreser," which traces back to Latin "increscere," "to grow in" or "to grow upon," built from "in-" and "crescere," "to grow." The same Latin root gives us "crescent" and "crescendo," so an increaseable quantity is, at root, one that can be made to grow. The "-able" suffix did the real work here. It comes through Old French from Latin "-abilis" and has been attached to English verbs since the Middle Ages, so "increaseable" follows the same pattern as "readable" or "washable." Its spelling is the less common of two variants. Most dictionaries and style guides prefer "increasable," which keeps the "a" of the stem, and the form with the silent "e" is the one that arises when English writers carry over the "e" from "increase" before the suffix.

Synonyms: expandable, extensible

Antonyms: decreaseable, contractible