tractable

adjective trac·ta·ble \ ˈtrak-tə-bəl \

|Updated on: 25 Jun 2018

Tip: Synonym Guide

Examples: tractable in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of tractable

1 : capable of being easily led, taught, or controlled : docile

a tractable horse

2 : easily handled, managed, or wrought : malleable

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tractability

play \ˌtrak-tə-ˈbi-lə-tē\ noun

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tractableness

play \ˈtrak-tə-bəl-nəs\ noun

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tractably

play \ˈtrak-tə-blē\ adverb

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tractable was our Word of the Day on 12/13/2014. Hear the podcast!

Examples of tractable in a Sentence

This new approach should make the problem more tractable.
He's a very tractable child.

Recent Examples of tractable from the Web

Visionary thought leaders like Gevers, who took Silicon Valley’s monopoly on startup financing to be a more tractable menace than African sheriffs, seemed by comparison exceptionally reasonable.

— gideon lewis-kraus, WIRED, "The Blockchain: A Love Story—And a Horror Story," 18 June 2018
Some techniques, such as selective breeding, are immediately tractable, inexpensive and effective.

— rebecca albright, Scientific American, "Scientists Are Taking Extreme Steps to Help Corals Survive," 1 Jan. 2018
And the film gets plenty of pathos out of Andy’s relationship with Rosie, a generally sweet and tractable kid who’s too young to understand any of what’s going on, but not too young to respond warmly to displays of affection.

— tasha robinson, The Verge, "Netflix’s Cargo has a few new ideas for the zombie genre," 21 Apr. 2018
Given its capacity for summary violence, the 720S is surreally tractable at low speeds, happy to burble around town in 1st and 2nd gear, the powertrain mode-selector on Comfort, its silencers on maximum.

— dan neil, WSJ, "Why the $285,000 McLaren 720S Is the Shape of Things to Come," 13 July 2017
Then would come the much more tractable and cognizable job of fixing ObamaCare.

— holman w. jenkins, WSJ, "The Result of GOP Failure," 18 July 2017
While many of Europe's problems are relatively tractable, there is one – the greatest challenge facing the region – that can be solved only by a fundamental shift in attitude: the conflict between immigration and national identity.

— misha glenny, WIRED, "How Europe Can Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Future," 1 Feb. 2001
In the aftermath, the government withdrew the list a few weeks after it was announced and has been working with online retailers to come up with a more tractable solution.

— Bloomberg.com, "A $60 Billion E-Commerce Loophole in China May Be Narrowing," 18 May 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'tractable.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Obedient, docile, and amenable are synonyms of tractable, but those four words have slightly different shades of meaning. Tractable describes an individual whose character permits easy handling, while docile implies a predisposition to submit readily to authority. Obedient is often used to describe compliance with authority, although that compliance is not necessarily offered eagerly. Amenable, on the other hand, is usually used when one cooperates out of a desire to be agreeable. Tractable dates from the early 16th century and derives from the Latin verb tractare ("to handle" or "to treat"). Despite the resemblance, this root did not give us the noun tractor or verbs such as contract or attract-those all derive from a loosely related Latin verb trahere ("to draw or drag").

Origin and Etymology of tractable

Latin tractabilis, from tractare to handle, treat

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1502

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

tractable Synonyms

Synonym Discussion of tractable

obedient, docile, tractable, amenable mean submissive to the will of another. obedient implies compliance with the demands or requests of one in authority.