predictable

adjective

pre·​dict·​able pri-ˈdik-tə-bəl 

1

: capable of being predicted : able to be known, seen, or declared in advance

a predictable reaction/outcome

a very predictable plot

changes occurring at a steady and predictable rate

2

: behaving in a way that is expected

I knew he would say that. He's so predictable.

predictability

pri-ˌdik-tə-ˈbi-lə-tē 

noun

By comparing the projections, meteorologists can get a measure of the weather's predictability: The less agreement among the forecasts, the less predictable the weather.

—Richard Monastersky

Examples of predictable in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

These sensors were originally activated to detect larger, brighter incoming ballistic missiles, which have a predictable trajectory toward their targets after boosting themselves out of the atmosphere and into space. —Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 26 Apr. 2025

Position Your Career Through Flexibility For decades, career advice focused on finding stability, such as long-term employment, predictable growth, and a steady climb. —Kathy Miller Perkins, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025

Ideally, reading materials include features that support a diversity of learning strategies, including text, pictures with corresponding words and predictable language. 2. —K. Dara Hill, The Conversation, 24 Apr. 2025

In the happiest cases, a company could establish long-term funding relationships and receive predictable year-in, year-out operating support, thus becoming an institution, which could, in turn, offer its own new-work labs and programs. —Helen Shaw, New Yorker, 24 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1820, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for predictable

• indictable
• unpredictable