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Passable vs Capable - What's the difference?

passable | capable |

As adjectives the difference between passable and capable

is that passable is that may be passed]] or [[traverse|traversed while capable is able and efficient; having the ability needed for a specific task; having the disposition to do something; permitting or being susceptible to something.

passable

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • That may be passed]] or [[traverse, traversed.
  • Tolerable; satisfactory; adequate.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The machine of a new soul , passage=The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.}}
  • Able to "pass", or be accepted as a member of a race, sex or other group to which society would not otherwise regard one as belonging.
  • * 2014 , Paul Stryker, Confessions of a Sex Offender (page 33)
  • The idea of something, or someone, being unusual and sexual is intoxicating. I concluded that if I ever met a very passable transsexual and we were attracted to one another, I'd go bisexual and pursue the relationship.

    Derived terms

    * passableness * passably ----

    capable

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Able and efficient; having the ability needed for a specific task; having the disposition to do something; permitting or being susceptible to something.
  • She is capable and efficient.
    He does not need help; he is capable of eating on his own.
    As everyone knew, he was capable of violence when roused.
    That fact is not capable of proof.
  • (obsolete) Of sufficient capacity or size for holding, containing, receiving or taking in. Construed with of'', ''for or an infinitive.
  • * 1775 Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland'' (''Works 10.479):
  • He has begun a road capable of a wheel-carriage.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * incapable

    Derived terms

    * capability noun

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----