phenomena explicable by the laws of physics
the mystery of those strange noises became quite explicable once we realized that a colony of bats had taken up residence
Recent Examples on the WebThe high-octane algorithms that power our current artificial intelligence boom have a way of doing things that aren’t outwardly explicable to the people observing them.—Lucas Ropek / Gizmodo, Quartz, 23 May 2024 That has fundamentally undermined the prospect of a two-state solution, which, despite its flaws, is the best way forward to respect the explicable demand by both national communities for self-determination.—Richard English, TIME, 17 May 2024 And, the panel said, even if there were a disparate impact on Asian Americans, the plaintiff would still lose because of insufficient evidence of discriminatory intent; the policy itself was race-blind and explicable as an effort to seek diversity rather than to harm Asian Americans.—Jeannie Suk Gersen, The New Yorker, 26 June 2023 Less explicable is the failure of international aid organizations, including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which have been conspicuously absent from the Dnipro’s left bank.—Anna Nemtsova, The Atlantic, 16 June 2023 Less explicable to some observers is the lack of any apparent PR attempt to rehabilitate Miller’s image.—Michael Cavna, Washington Post, 14 June 2023 Most of the results are rather obvious and explicable.—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 7 Sep. 2012 But maybe these startling effects are explicable.—Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 10 Aug. 2021 Agents say the arrival of migrants from distant countries is readily explicable: Intensified screening to board commercial airliners overseas and at passport control at American airports has led people from other hemispheres to try the Baja-to-San Diego small-boat run.—New York Times, 28 Jan. 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'explicable.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Middle French & Latin; Middle French, borrowed from Latin explicābilis "capable of being unraveled," from explicāre "to free from folds or creases, unroll, disentangle, spread out, set out in words" + + -bilis "capable (of acting) or worthy (of being acted upon)" — more at explicate, -able
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