tractable
adjective
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A frequentative is a form of a verb that indicates repeated action. The frequentative of the word sniff, for example, is sniffle, meaning “to sniff repeatedly.” Some English words come from a frequentative in another language, and tractable is one. Tractable, meaning “easily led or managed,” comes from the Latin adjective tractabilis, which in turn comes from the verb tractare, which has various meanings including “to drag about,” “to handle,” “to deal with,” and “to treat.” Not to drag on too much about Latin, but tractare is the frequentative of another Latin verb, trahere, meaning “to drag or pull.” Now, one can pull or tug a draft animal on a lead, for example, whether or not that animal is willing or compliant. But if one can pull, handle, or otherwise deal with that animal repeatedly or continuously with ease (by treating it well, we presume)? Well, you can see where this is leading—in English we would call our helpful animal friend tractable. Speaking of farms, despite its resemblance, tractor did not pass through the frequentative tractare but it does come from trahere.
Synonyms
Examples of tractable in a Sentence
IEEE Spectrum, 12 May 2024
The corresponding symplectic spaces are more complicated than the one for a pendulum, but still tractable.
—Leila Sloman, WIRED, 5 May 2024
Like James’s governess, Christine becomes an author of sorts through her attempts to understand a situation that isn’t, in the end, all that tractable.
—Joanna Biggs, Harper's Magazine, 10 Jan. 2024
This all makes for a very promising step toward a tractable system to study primate embryogenesis, but the techniques are far from perfect.
—Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 1 June 2023
This question was made more mathematically tractable by Simon Laplace.
—Sourav Goswami, Forbes, 28 Nov. 2023
The risks identified are tethered to tractable and compounding risks.
—TIME, 24 Oct. 2023
Engine, Transmission, and Performance The Camaro's 650-hp supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 is a well-behaved and tractable engine that makes power all over the rev range.
—Austin Irwin, Car and Driver, 6 June 2023
There is a real tension emerging between environmentalists who are very concerned about the problems associated with the renewable-energy transition and those who see those issues as minor and tractable compared with the ongoing disaster that is the fossil-fuel economy.
—Emma Marris, The Atlantic, 13 July 2022
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tractable.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near tractable
Cite this Entry
“Tractable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tractable. Accessed 10 Jun. 2024.
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tractable
adjective
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