allowable

A1L1L1O1W4A1B3L1E1
/əˈlaʊ.əbəl/

adjective

Appropriate; acceptable.

CommonScrabble 14

Meanings

adjectiveallowable (comparative more allowable, superlative most allowable)

comparative more allowable · superlative most allowable

  1. Able to be added or deducted in consideration of something.
  2. Permissible; tolerable; legitimate.

    New HISA regulations, implemented last month, include strict rules about withdrawal times and allowable medication levels on race day.

    2023 June 10, Majlie de Puy Kamp, Curt Devine, Audrey Ash, Casey Tolan, Allison Gordon and Pamela Brown, “As horse racing’s best trainers rake in millions, records show they’ve violated rules aimed at keeping the animals safe”, in CNN
    1 more example

    And first, although there were more things in nature then words which did expresse them, yet even in these mute and silent discourses, to expresse complexed significations, they took a liberty to compound and piece together creatures of allowable formes unto mixtures inexistent […]

    1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC

    Synonyms: acceptable, leveful, permissible, abideable, acceptable, admissible, permissible, sufferable

nounallowable (plural allowables)

plural allowables

  1. A permitted amount or activity.

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveIntellectually admissible; valid; probable.

More synonyms by meaning

adjectivedeductible according to the tax laws

Similar

adjectivethat may be permitted especially as according to rule

adjectivedeserving to be allowed or considered

Similar

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Old Frenchalouable
  2. Middle Englishallowable
  3. Englishallowable

From Middle English allowable, alowable, a borrowing from Old French alouable (Modern French allouable), from allouer, equivalent to allow + -able.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

allowable. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/allowable

MLA

“allowable.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/allowable. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “allowable,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/allowable.

Source: allowable on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.