practicable

practicable 1 feasible, *possible

Analogous words: operating or operable, working or workable, functioning (see corresponding verbs at ACT)

Antonyms: impracticable

2 Practicable, practical are not close synonyms and not interchangeable, but they are sometimes confused when they imply a capacity for being used or turned to account.

Practicable (see also POSSIBLE 1) applies chiefly to something immaterial (as a plan, project, scheme, or design) which has not been tested in practice or to something material (as a new machine, a new form of entertainment, or a new implement) which has not been proved successful in operation or use

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aviation was his predominant interest. He was one of the first to consider aerial locomotion practicable—W. C. Langdon

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the lovely combes running down to the sea are infested with cars in the summer season wherever there is a practicable road— Brit. Book News

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a serviceable concept on which to base a practicable policy— Hobson

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Practical applies not only to things both concrete and immaterial but also as practicable does not, to persons. The term in all of its senses stresses an opposition to what is theoretical, speculative, ideal, unrealistic, or imaginative and implies a relation to the actual life of man, his daily needs, or the conditions which must be met. When the term also implies a capacity for use, it emphasizes actual usefulness rather than highly probable or merely discovered usableness; thus, a plan might be practicable in that it could be put into practice though not practical because inefficient, too costly, or superfluous; the modern low-slung highspeed automobile was practicable long before improved roads and fuels made it practical

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those most practical machines of our modern life, the dynamo and the telephone— Ellis

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Hence, practical may apply to whatever is such in kind, character, amount, or effect that it is definitely useful or serviceable in actual life

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to make the gas turbine practical for the ordinary driver, controls would have to be simple and . . . fuel consumption . . . lowered— Modern Industry

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practical sciences, in which knowledge is pursued as a means to conduct rather than as an end in itself— Thilly

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he was eminently practical, seeking a sound, workable system adapted to the conditions of the people— Schafer

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in everything he undertook he demanded a utilitarian purpose and a practical result— Buchan

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