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I am looking for a word (or a group of words) that describe items that can (or can’t) be labelled with a serial number/barcode. (I was thinking of “can serialable items” and “non-seriable items”, but I could not find serialable and non-seriable in dictionary.)

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Can you give a little bit more context? What is this for? And can you give an example of an item that cannon be labelled with a serial number? – Sam Oct 27 '11 at 1:18
A example of a item that cannot be labelled with a serial number / bar code - capacitor. (Other examples are pen, pencils, spoon, fork, resistor, paper). A example of a item that can be labelled with a serial number / var code - Laptop. (Other examples are scanner, table, printer) – Larry Morries Oct 27 '11 at 1:22

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

The word 'serialized' can be used this way. It literally means arranged as a series or placed in a definite order. But products with serial numbers are arranged as a series and are placed in a definite order.

Some laws refer to products containing a serial number as "serialized" products. For example, California's 21628(b) says: "... [a] complete and reasonably accurate description of serialized property, including, but not limited to, the following: serial number and other identifying marks or symbols, owner-applied numbers, ..."

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Hi David, may I know if I can consider the word 'non-serialized' for items that cannot be labelled? – Larry Morries Oct 27 '11 at 2:02
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"Non-serializable" and "non-serialized" are commonly used for the computer science meaning of "serialize" (convert into a stream of bytes). So I don't see why you can't use it for this one. You certainly wouldn't be the first to do so. – David Schwartz Oct 27 '11 at 2:06
Hi David, so, I can use the two word "Non-serializable" and "non-serialized" outside the computer science context cause my question is not related to computer science. – Larry Morries Oct 27 '11 at 2:08
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The government does so why not you. – David Schwartz Oct 27 '11 at 2:09
That link your provided is a good one. Thanks. – Larry Morries Oct 27 '11 at 2:11
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up vote 3 down vote

You could use trackable for those that can be labelled, and not trackable, nontrackable, or untrackable for those that can.

From thefreedictionary.com:

Adj. 1.trackable - capable of being traced or tracked;

Although now that I've typed untrackable, untraceable comes to mind, but I'm not sure it means quite what you want.

EDIT(side note: I've just noticed the site I linked lists traceable as an alternative)

EDIT
While responding to the comment below, I realized a very workable word for this is indexed for those itmes which are labelled/numbered (and non-indexed for those which are not).

EDIT:
Since you have many of each type of item, and are using the barcodes to differentiate between the barcoded items, you could use the terms unique and generic.

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for your information - you are on the right track to what I want. I still open for new word(s) suggestion. – Larry Morries Oct 27 '11 at 1:28
@LarryMorries Is a count kept of all the non-indexed items? – Jim Oct 27 '11 at 1:29
all items will be counted as need to know how many items are in the storeroom. – Larry Morries Oct 27 '11 at 1:32
@LarryMorries Well, that rules out inventoried vs non-inventoried. – Jim Oct 27 '11 at 1:33
there is no need to differentiate between the barcoded items but I appreciate those 2 words. I need most is the differentiate between barcoded items and non-barcoded items – Larry Morries Oct 27 '11 at 1:53
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up vote 1 down vote

Unlabelable.

You say you are looking for a word to express that the object cannot be labeled with a serial number barcode. The issue seems to be not so much whether the object should be labeled, but just the practicality of putting a label on the object. So the most direct solutions would be negations of labelable or barcodable.

Out of the various combinations of un- and non- prefixes with labelable and barcodable, with or without the hyphen, only unlabelable shows up with any frequency in the Google Ngram Viewer.

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+1 to show my appreciation for your help – Larry Morries Nov 1 '11 at 7:04

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