potable

CEFRC1

/ˈpəʊtəbəl/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Safe and suitable for drinking.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Any drinkable liquid; a beverage.

Examples

  • I had barely enough potable water for a week.

  • The water is not potable.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
3
Parts of speech
1
Citations
1
Synonyms
2

Also pronounced

  • /ˈpɒt-/
  • /ˈpoʊtəbəl/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meaning

  1. Good for drinking without fear of waterborne disease or poisoning.

More examples

In context

  • We had no potable water.

  • The water from this river should not be considered potable without disinfection: you may be OK if you drink it raw, but you're gambling if you do so.

  • potable water

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The water treatment plant uses multiple steps to ensure the water is clean and blank for drinking.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English potable (“drinkable, potable”), from Middle French, Old French potable (modern French potable (“drinkable, potable”)), and from its etymon Late Latin pōtābilis (“drinkable, potable”), from Latin pōtāre (“to drink”) + -bilis (suffix forming adjectives indicating a capacity or worth of being acted upon). Pōtāre is the present active infinitive of pōtō (“to drink”), from Proto-Italic *pōtos, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₃- (“to drink”). The English word is cognate with Catalan potable, Italian potabile, Spanish potable. The noun is derived from the adjective.