Reckonable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Capable of being counted or calculated; worthy of consideration in deliberation or decision-making; regarded as valid or reliable in assessment or evaluation
2. Describing something that can be quantified or evaluated ; acknowledged for its importance in judgment or reasoning ; considered trustworthy in contexts of estimation or appraisal
3. Pertaining to items or factors that can be assessed numerically ; relevant in thoughtful discussions or conclusions ; deemed credible and significant in analyses or estimations

Etymology: "Reckonable" is a plain formation: the verb "reckon" with the suffix "-able," meaning "capable of being" the action named by the base. To reckon is to count, calculate, or estimate, so something reckonable is something that can be counted or estimated. The verb itself goes back to Old English "reccenian," meaning to narrate or recount, which gradually shifted toward the sense of counting up and totting figures. The suffix "-able" came into English through Old French from Latin "-abilis," and it was attached freely to native verbs such as "reckon." That is why the word sits comfortably beside older English-based formations and why its meaning can be read straight from its parts. Its later senses, relevant to a discussion or credible in an analysis, grow naturally from the basic idea of something that can be reckoned with.

Synonyms: accountable, considerable, noteworthy, calculable, estimable

Antonyms: unaccountable, negligible, inconsiderable, insignificant, irrelevant