Mistakable

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /mɪˈsteɪkəbəl/

Definitions

1. Capable of being confused with something else or incorrectly identified as different from what it actually is
2. Prone to being perceived as something it is not or easily recognized wrongly as a different entity in various contexts
3. Able to be mistaken for another item or misidentified, leading to possible confusion about its true nature

Etymology: "Mistakable" is a plain formation: the verb "mistake" with the suffix "-able," which means "capable of being." So a mistakable thing is one that is capable of being taken for something else. The suffix itself has a long pedigree. It descends through Latin "-bilis" and "-abilis," passed into Old French as "-able," and was borrowed into Middle English, where it became the productive English ending found in words like "readable" and "washable." The verb "mistake" is itself older and more interesting, since it arrived from Old Norse "mistaka," meaning to take in error, which the English had encountered through their Scandinavian neighbours. Its core idea, of grasping the wrong thing, is what the adjective carries forward. A mistakable face or signature is one that a careful observer could still take for another.

Synonyms: clear, obvious, evident, apparent, distinct

Antonyms: ambiguous, unclear, confusing, indistinct, vague