assignable

English

Etymology

From assign +‎ -able.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈsaɪnəbl̩/

Adjective

assignable (comparative more assignable, superlative most assignable)

1. Capable of being assigned (all senses).

   In many programming languages, numeric values are not assignable to string variables.

   • 1995, George H. Lawrence, Thomas D. Kane, “Military Service and Racial Attitudes of White Veterans”, in Armed Forces & Society, volume 22, number 2, page 252:

     First, we were forced to infer era of service from birthdate, resulting in a relatively small number of respondents assignable to the post-EO era veterans condition.

2. Capable of being specified or shown.
   • 1848, John Stuart Mill, “Fundamental Propositions Respecting Capital”, in Principles of Political Economy, volume I, New York: D. Appleton and Company, published 1893, book I, page 98:

     While, on the one hand, industry is limited by capital, so on the other, every increase of capital gives, or is capable of giving, additional employment to industry ; and this without assignable limit.

   • 1853, Thomas De Quincey, “Plato’s Republic”, in Historical and Critical Essays, volume I, Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields:

     Now, certainly, in a general view, the purpose of the Platonic soldier was the same, but with this important difference—that his fighting condition was not needed on one or two days consecutively, but on many days, and not against a day punctually assignable, but against a season or period perhaps of months, quite indeterminate as to its beginning, end, or duration.

Antonyms

• nonassignable

French

Etymology

From assigner +‎ -able.

Adjective

assignable (plural assignables)

1. assignable

Further reading

• “assignable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.