Typifiable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Capable of being characterized or classified into a specific type or category
2. describing something that can be easily described or identified within a classification system
3. representing features that allow it to fit into a defined typology or group

Etymology: Ancient Greek "typos" meant a blow, or the mark a blow leaves behind. From that sense of an impression came the idea of a pattern that other things are pressed from, which is how printers' type got its name: each letter was a stamped block. The sense of a representative example grew from the same notion of a shape that others are struck from. "Typify" adds the verb-forming suffix "-ify", meaning to make into or to represent as, so to typify something is to serve as its representative example. The adjective adds "-able", from Latin "-abilis" through French, giving the sense of being capable of being so represented. The formation is transparent, a set of familiar parts assembled in English rather than a special coinage.

Synonyms: classifiable, categorical

Antonyms: unclassifiable, unique