Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Likely to happen or to be true: War seemed probable in 1938. The home team, far ahead, is the probable winner.
- adj. Likely but uncertain; plausible.
- adj. Theology Of or relating to opinions and actions in ethics and morals for whose lawfulness intrinsic reasons or extrinsic authority may be adduced.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Capable of being proved; provable.
- Having more evidence for than against, or evidence which inclines the mind to belief, but leaves some room for doubt; likely.
- Rendering something likely, or showing it to be likely: as, probable evidence; a probable presumption.
- Plausible; specious; colorable.
- Synonyms Presumable, credible, reasonable.
- n. A probable opinion; an opinion resting upon good but not sufficient grounds.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Capable of being proved.
- adj. Having more evidence for than against; supported by evidence which inclines the mind to believe, but leaves some room for doubt; likely.
- adj. Rendering probable; supporting, or giving ground for, belief, but not demonstrating
WordNet 3.0
- adj. apparently destined
- adj. likely but not certain to be or become true or real
- n. an applicant likely to be chosen
Etymologies
- From French probable, from Latin probabilis ("that may be proved, credible"), from probare ("to test, examine"); see probe, prove. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, plausible, from Old French, from Latin probābilis, from probāre, to prove; see prove. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“_comparatively_ probable, when after hearing all the reasons and all the authorities on the other side, the said opinion still remains _not unlikely_, which is all that we mean to say of an opinion here, when we call it _probable_.”
“It's really early to speculate on the final cause and the federal investigators will spend weeks, months, who knows how long it will take before they'll come up with what they call probable cause.”
“There probable is a lot of reason that she wantto get out of being governor, but we will not know until years from now.”
“Just over 100 have been deemed carcinogens, 59 are called probable carcinogens, and 266 others are possible ones.”
“What does seem very probable is that my consumption will increase over time as the various types of online content increase in size and I doubt TW will adjust as quickly as the market.”
“How probable is this scenario for the Shuttle or for the Ares 1?”
“Possibly, but more probable is whack job Pat Robertson announcing that Hawaii is being punished by God for allowing the Barack Obama birth certificate cover up.”
Think Progress » Rep. Trent Franks: African-Americans were better off under slavery.
“A reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed, and that you are the person who committed it, is called probable cause.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘probable’.
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Words starting with PRO
I've noticed many, many words start with PRO and this is just a collection of them.
professional, pronunciation, Prolagus, probable, prog, proximity, profit, procrastincate, prom, pronoun, promise, proactive and 206 more...
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Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
Tweets
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