tractable

American  

[trak-tuh-buhl] / ˈtræk tə bəl /

adjective

1. easily managed or controlled; docile; yielding.

   a tractable child; a tractable disposition.

   Synonyms:

   governable, willing, manageable

   Antonyms:

   stubborn

2. easily worked, shaped, or otherwise handled; malleable.

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tractable British  

/ ˈtræktəbəl /

adjective

1. easily controlled or persuaded

2. readily worked; malleable

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Other Word Forms

• nontractability noun
• nontractable adjective
• nontractableness noun
• nontractably adverb
• tractability noun
• tractableness noun
• tractably adverb
• untractability noun
• untractable adjective
• untractableness noun
• untractably adverb

Etymology

Origin of tractable

1495–1505; < Latin tractābilis, equivalent to tractā ( re ) to handle, deal with (frequentative of trahere to draw) + -bilis -ble

Explanation

If your little brother quietly obeys your instructions and waits for you at the food court while you and your friends wander around the mall, he's probably a tractable child, meaning he's obedient, flexible, and responds well to directions. Note the similarity between tractable and tractor. Both come from the Latin word tractare, which originally meant "to drag about." You can think of a tractable person as someone who can be dragged about easily, like a plow being dragged by a tractor.

Example Sentences

Hooked to an eight-speed dual-clutch automated manual transmission, the V12 is splendidly tractable at around-town speeds.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 23, 2025

“Social media is the problem, and it’s really the algorithms” provides a very simple and tractable solution, which is that you fix the algorithms.

From Salon • Oct. 25, 2024

One could use this method to obtain an optimal solution more quickly or, for especially complex problems, a better solution in a tractable amount of time.

From Science Daily • Dec. 5, 2023

“Keeping the focus narrow is often important to making a project or scientific analysis tractable, and I don’t consider that ‘leaving out truth’ unless intended to mislead — certainly not my goal,” he wrote.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 12, 2023

"And Tommen is heir, should anything ill befall His Grace. Tommen, whose nature is so sweet, and notably . . . tractable."

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin