VIABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does viable mean? 

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

1. capable of being done with means at hand and circumstances as they are

2. capable of life or normal growth and development

  Familiarity information: VIABLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VIABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Capable of being done with means at hand and circumstances as they are

Synonyms:

executable; feasible; practicable; viable; workable

Similar:

possible (capable of happening or existing)

Derivation:

viability (capable of being done in a practical and useful way)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Capable of life or normal growth and development

Context example:

a viable fetus

Similar:

alive; live (possessing life)

Derivation:

viability ((of living things) capable of normal growth and development)

 Context examples 

A unit of cell concentration expressed as the number of viable cells per femur.

(Cells per Femur, NCI Thesaurus)

The eggs can remain viable for more than a year in dry environments.

(Thyme oil and corn starch prove deadly for mosquito larvae, SciDev.Net)

A unit of cell concentration expressed as the number of viable cells per million total cells.

(Colony Forming Unit per Million Cells, NCI Thesaurus)

Techniques and methods for separating cells (usually viable) based on a variety of criteria for separation, such as size or density, non-specific surface properties, or specific surface properties.

(Cell Sorting, NCI Thesaurus)

The medical device is free from viable microorganisms.

(Packaged as Sterile, Food and Drug Administration)

A unit of measurement of viable bacterial numbers.

(Colony Forming Unit, NCI Thesaurus)

Germination results in lysis and destruction of surrounding viable tumor cells.

(Clostridium Novyi-NT Spores, NCI Thesaurus)

A derived unit of measurement of viable bacterial organisms in a unit mass of substance of interest defined as the number of colony forming units in one gram of substance.

(Colony Forming Unit per Gram, NCI Thesaurus)

Any vaccine created by reducing the virulence of bacteria but still keeping the bacteria viable (live).

(Attenuated Bacteria Vaccine, NCI Thesaurus)

"We don't have a conceptual framework for understanding the planet's evolution. This is one viable hypothesis."

(Earth's mantle, not its core, may have generated planet's early magnetic field, National Science Foundation)