Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Capable of being stated or predicated.
- noun Something, such as a general quality or attribute, that can be predicated.
- noun Logic One of the general attributes of a subject or class. In scholastic thought, the attributes are genus, species, property, differentia, and accident; in Aristotelian thought, they are definition, genus, proprium, and accident.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Capable of being predicated or affirmed; assertable.
- noun A logical term considered as capable of being universally predicated of another; usually, one of the five words, or five kinds of predicates, according to the Aristotelian logic, namely genus, species, difference, property, and accident.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Anything affirmable of another; especially, a general attribute or notion as affirmable of, or applicable to, many individuals.
- noun (Logic) One of the five most general relations of attributes involved in logical arrangements, namely, genus, species, difference, property, and accident.
- adjective Capable of being predicated or affirmed of something; affirmable; attributable.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective grammar That may be used in the
predicate of a sentence, especially following a form of the verb "tobe ". - noun Anything affirmable of another; especially, a general
attribute ornotion as affirmable of, or applicable to, many individuals. - noun logic One of the five most general relations of
attributes involved in logical arrangements, namely,genus ,species ,difference ,property , andaccident .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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A predicable was another name for a universal, the common term being called a predicable in one relation and a universal in another-a predicable, extensively, in so far as it was applicable to several different things, a universal, intensively, in so far as the attributes indicated were implied in several other notions, as the attributes indicated by 'animal' are implied in 'horse,' 'sheep,'
Deductive Logic St. George William Joseph Stock
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In this sense it is called predicable, as distinguished from predicamental, accident, the latter term standing for a real objective form or status of things, and denoting
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913
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If, however, the predicaments are heads of a classification of terms predicable, we may expect to find some connection with the predicables; and, in fact, secondary Substances are species and genus; whilst the remaining nine forms are generally accidents.
Logic Deductive and Inductive Carveth Read 1889
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There's a certain kind of predicable good taste; everything matches all too precisely and the impact is usually pleasant and boring.
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Some of these old white haired men need to get voted out of the Senate so that only their wives are subject to their boring predicable rhetoric.
Franken takes on Lieberman as tensions builds in Senate 2009
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It means less predicable climate and more extreme weather, and a myriad of other knock-on consequences that ultimately cost us a great deal of money, or worse.
Adam Lowry: Don't Fix the Blame, Fix the Problem Adam Lowry 2011
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"We're talking about hundreds of millions of Social Security numbers that are still potentially predicable," Acquisti said.
Child Identity Theft Takes Advantage Of Kids' Unused Social Security Numbers 2011
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I really like the office, I am just starting to think it is very predicable.
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The exploding cane duel suggestion was funny, but really so much of it was predicable.
More Steampunkery Still! wendigomountain 2009
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"Before it was more like a sleepy, nice, predicable Westchester community," said Edith Roth , a broker who has lived in the village for more than 25 years.
Mamaroneck Starts to Lose 'Sleepy' Feel Joseph De Avila 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word predicable
From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:
"A logical term considered as capable of being universally predicated of another; usually, one of the five words, or five kinds of predicates, according to the Aristotelian logic, namely genus, species, difference, property, and accident."
May 3, 2017