Sufferable
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Able to suffer, endure, or tolerate. archaic, obsolete
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- 2 Capable of being endured, tolerated, permitted, or allowed. archaic, obsolete
"Greek philosophers put it bluntly: "The best thing in the world is not to be born; but the second best is to die." Up to the point of suicide the suffering continues to be sufferable."
- 1 capable of being borne though unpleasant wordnet
Example
More examples"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
Etymology
PIE word *upó From Middle English sufferable, souffrable (“bearable, endurable, tolerable; allowable, permissible; able to or willing to bear hardship; forbearing, long-suffering; calm, self-restrained, slow to anger; capable of suffering”), from Anglo-Norman sufferable, souffrable, and Old French souffrable, suffrable (“sufferable, tolerable”)), from Medieval Latin sufferābilis, from Latin sufferre + -ābilis (suffix meaning ‘able or worthy to be’). Sufferre is the present active infinitive of sufferō, subferō (“to bear or carry under; to bear, endure, suffer, undergo”), from sub- (prefix meaning ‘below, under’) + ferō (“to bear, carry; to endure, suffer, tolerate”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”)). The English word is analysable as suffer + -able.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.