explicable

American  

[ek-spli-kuh-buhl, ik-splik-uh-buhl] / ˈɛk splɪ kə bəl, ɪkˈsplɪk ə bəl /

adjective

1. capable of being explained.

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explicable British  

/ ˈɛksplɪkəbəl, ɪkˈsplɪk- /

adjective

1. capable of being explained

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Other Word Forms

• nonexplicable adjective

Etymology

Origin of explicable

1550–60; < Latin explicābilis, equivalent to explicā ( re ) to explicate + -bilis -ble

Explanation

Can you understand your chemistry teacher's explanation of how to do an experiment? Then it's explicable, able to be comprehended clearly and accurately. Since the 16th century, the adjective explicable has been used for things that are intelligible or that can be solved. It comes from the Latin explicabilis, "capable of being unraveled," and its root, explicare, "unfold or explain." These days you're most likely to find it in academic or formal writing, not always the most explicable of genres.

Example Sentences

At the beginning, he shows off a kind of narrative gun, by warning that “strange and not entirely explicable things are nowadays happening in the world of wind.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025

But, as Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times persuasively argued Wednesday, Trump's psychology makes it explicable.

From Salon • Mar. 6, 2025

But given artistic director Thomas Jolly’s idiosyncratic opening show, set upon the Seine, one would have expected something interesting, if not on its own explicable.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 11, 2024

Dr Marnerides said in his opinion there was "no evidence that a natural disease would explain his death" and concluded that death was "explicable on the basis of air embolism".

From BBC • Mar. 29, 2023

There was no explicable way she knew it, but she sensed this woman was the leader of this peculiar group, its matriarch.

From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray