articulable

adjective

ar·​tic·​u·​la·​ble är-ˈti-kyə-lə-bəl How to pronounce articulable (audio)
: capable of being articulated

Examples of articulable in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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This constellation—a left-wing artistic politics that retained ties with yesteryear’s bohemian lifestyles while linking up with pragmatic concerns articulable as coherent demands that could interest broader audiences—was pretty novel. Diedrich Diederichsen, Artforum, 1 Dec. 2025 Walther, who described himself as a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, emphasized to the crowd that Arizonans needed a strong, articulable explanation for the use of self-defense. The Arizona Republic, 28 Feb. 2024 The government has presented no articulable facts to support these assertions. Alexander Smith, NBC News, 27 Apr. 2023 Target licensees are often skeptical when a licensing program lacks an articulable rationale for a demand. John Quinn, Forbes, 2 Jan. 2023 This constitutes a specifically articulable threat. Christine Pelisek, PEOPLE.com, 6 Apr. 2022 From alternative energy to housing, there's a readily-articulable and substantively important deregulatory agenda that is not unfriendly to Republican interest groups and is responsive to the most important issues in voters' minds. Noah Millman, The Week, 18 Mar. 2022 But the Supreme Court in a 1976 decision gave the agency broad authority to select cars for inspection at checkpoints without any articulable reason. Kate Morrissey, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Nov. 2021 The standard for initiating a criminal investigation is a modest one, requiring only articulable facts reasonably indicating a crime has occurred; at this point, more than enough evidence of each of these crimes has been publicly revealed to justify a full federal investigation. Jennifer Rodgers, CNN, 8 Oct. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1796, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of articulable was in 1796

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Cite this Entry

“Articulable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/articulable. Accessed 17 Dec. 2025.

Legal Definition

articulable

adjective
ar·​tic·​u·​la·​ble är-ˈti-kyə-lə-bəl How to pronounce articulable (audio)
: capable of being expressed, explained, or justified
police had observed drug sale and stopped defendant on articulable reasonable suspicion that he was dealing drugsNational Law Journal
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