PROBABLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does probable mean? 

• PROBABLE (noun)
  The noun PROBABLE has 1 sense:

1. an applicant likely to be chosen

  Familiarity information: PROBABLE used as a noun is very rare.

• PROBABLE (adjective)
  The adjective PROBABLE has 2 senses:

1. likely but not certain to be or become true or real

2. apparently destined

  Familiarity information: PROBABLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROBABLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An applicant likely to be chosen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("probable" is a kind of...):

applicant; applier (a person who requests or seeks something such as assistance or employment or admission)

• PROBABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Likely but not certain to be or become true or real

Synonyms:

likely; probable

Context example:

he foresaw a probable loss

Similar:

equiprobable (equally probable)

presumptive (having a reasonable basis for belief or acceptance)

verisimilar (appearing to be true or real)

Antonym:

improbable (not likely to be true or to occur or to have occurred)

Derivation:

probability (a measure of how likely it is that some event will occur; a number expressing the ratio of favorable cases to the whole number of cases possible)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Apparently destined

Context example:

the probable consequences of going ahead with the scheme

Similar:

likely (has a good chance of being the case or of coming about)

Derivation:

probability (the quality of being probable; a probable event or the most probable event)

 Context examples 

But it was more probable that he should be come to stay.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The authors concluded that the most probable explanation for these shallower craters is the accumulation of previously undetected thick ice deposits on both worlds.

(The Moon and Mercury May Have Thick Ice Deposits, NASA)

There was a smile on his lips, and his eyes sparkled, whether with wine or not, I am not sure; but I think it very probable.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

‘We may find something else of Charles the First,’ I cried, as the probable meaning of the first two questions of the Ritual broke suddenly upon me.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Something wonderful happened—or the man's a champion liar, which is the more probable supposeetion.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His marrying Miss Thorpe is not probable.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

This allele, which encodes probable ATP-dependent RNA helicase DDX10 protein, is involved in the modulation of both ATP hydrolysis and RNA metabolism.

(DDX10 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

This allele, which encodes probable ATP-dependent RNA helicase DDX31 protein, is involved in the regulation of RNA secondary structure.

(DDX31 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

There were three different conclusions to be drawn from his silence, between which her mind was in fluctuation; each of them at times being held the most probable.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

This allele, which encodes carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 6 protein, plays a probable role in both cell adhesion and cell-cell signaling.

(CEACAM6 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)