Tellable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Capable of being related or recounted as a story
2. Suitable for telling or sharing with others as a narrative
3. Having qualities that make something worth telling or narrating

Etymology: "Tellable" is a plain formation: the verb "tell" with the suffix "-able," which turns a verb into an adjective meaning "able to be" or "fit for" the action. It came into English from Middle English "tellabyll," so the pattern is old, going back to the medieval period when English borrowed and adapted "-able" from French and Latin. The word therefore means something that can be told, or that is worth telling and narrating. A tale that is "tellable" has the qualities that make it suitable for retelling, which is a neat fit with how the suffix works: it describes whether something is capable of being done, here the act of telling.

Synonyms: narratable, reportable, relatable, describable, communicable