probable
pronunciation
How to pronounce probable in British English:
UK [ˈprɒbəbl]
How to pronounce probable in American English:
US [ˈprɑːbəbl]
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- Noun:
- an applicant likely to be chosen
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- Adjective:
- likely but not certain to be or become true or real
- apparently destined
Word Origin
- probable
- probable: [14] Latin probāre meant ‘test, approve, prove’ (it is the source of English probate [15], probation [15], probe [16], and prove). From it was derived the adjective probābilis ‘provable’, hence ‘likely’. It passed into English via Old French probable.=> probate, probation, probe, prove, reprobate
- probable (adj.)
- late 14c., from Old French probable "provable, demonstrable" (14c.), from Latin probabilis "worthy of approval, pleasing, agreeable, acceptable; provable, that may be assumed to be believed, credible," from probare "to try, to test" (see prove). Probable cause as a legal term is attested from 1670s.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Summary shutdown unlikely , paring back of service probable .
- 2. Inductive arguments , rather than producing certainty , are thus intended to produce probable and believable conclusions .
- 3. Yet more qe now seems the most probable policy response .
- 4. Your story reversals should be inevitable and probable .
- 5. Local polls were a probable flashpoint .