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What is an adjective for something that can be responded to? I tried respondable but it looks like it isn't in the dictionary and it felt wrong anyway.

Update: I need to use it in the context of responding to user requests by the company staff. So the user request is [insert the word here] if there is an option (like a checkbox) to respond to the request.

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    According to NOAD: answerable (adj.) (of a question) able to be answered. That might work for what you want, but it's hard to know for sure, because you've provided so little context in your question. You could be talking about a question on an exam, a question by a lawyer to a defendant, a field on a website's feedback form, a line in a script of a play, an open-ended question by a stand-up comic, etc. I'm not sure "answerable" would best word under all possible contexts. – J.R. Jan 21 '13 at 11:58
  • An event? An event can be responded to?! – Mohit Jan 21 '13 at 14:26
  • @J.R. I'd say answerable suffers the same limitations as responsible -- how is it any better? – Kris Jan 23 '13 at 5:33
  • @Kris: Examine the edit history of this question, with particular attention paid to Version 1. When I made my comment, none of the updates had been made yet; in fact, my initial comment that may have prompted some of the later improvements. – J.R. Jan 23 '13 at 8:32
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It felt wrong because -able forms adjectives from transitive verbs — doable, drivable, killable, reversable, callable, wearable. But respond is not a transitive verb. Find a transitive synonym, and then slap the -able onto it. For example, answerable, fieldable, addressable, handleable, acknowledgeable.

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  • thanks. I guess the best choice in this context will be either answerable or addressable – soulcheck Jan 21 '13 at 12:05
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    actionable is another alternative – rojoca Jan 21 '13 at 15:58
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    oh that is a good rule. -able only works with transitive verbs. is this a known rule? or just a general observation? – thang Jan 21 '13 at 17:01
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The nearest you’re likely to get is answerable, in the sense ‘Capable of answering requirements, purposes’ (Oxford English Dictionary).

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  • I'd say answerable suffers the same limitations as responsible -- how is it any better? – Kris Jan 23 '13 at 5:32
  • @Kris. It's true that both words can imply a sense of duty, but my intuition is that responsible does so more forcefully. As so often, if time and inclination allowed, a thorough corpus search might provide the answer. – Barrie England Jan 23 '13 at 7:40
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Based on your update, you might consider:

feasible: possible to do easily or conveniently

workable: capable of producing the desired effect or result; practicable; feasible

Other options might include viable, achievable, or attainable.

(Definitions from NOAD)

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  • sorry, i didn't notice it made the question even more ambiguous. Updated again. – soulcheck Jan 21 '13 at 12:07
  • Or perhaps serviceable. – Scott Jan 22 '13 at 3:06
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Respondable is already a word. Found in formal as well as informal, technical as well as non-technical writing.

1 ruby-doc.org Class: Respondable

2 Lan Shi: Respondable risk and incentives for CEOs: The role of information-collection and decision-making

This paper examines the incentive provision when the agent can respond to risk by exerting effort to collect information about the underlying state and making corresponding decisions. Such effort is shown to be more valuable in a riskier environment and incentives can increase with “respondable” risk. The relation between incentives and risk is more positive when the agent's effort is more effective in collecting information or in acting upon it. Using data on chief executive officers (CEOs), I find that incentives for CEOs increase with industry-wide risk, a measure of respondable risk. The positive relation diminishes when the CEO is less able to collect information or is less effective in acting upon it.

3 RealWired! You Need to be “Respondable”

It’s not a typo. The word I’m using and intended to use is “respondable”. I’m using it as an adjective and I suggest you adopt it that way too. Here’s what I’m suggesting. If you are communicating, particularly in the world of social media, you have a responsibility to make what you put out there respondable. Hint: If you are going to adopt what I suggest, you better add “respondable” to your processor’s dictionary, because I assure you it’s not there and that alone will drive you nuts.

4 V-REP Static/non-static, respondable/ non-respondable shape behaviors and interactions

During dynamic simulation, static shapes will not be influenced (i.e. their position relative to their parent object is fixed), whereas non-static shapes will be directly influenced by gravity or other constraints (e.g. dynamically enabled joints, see hereafter). Respondable shapes influence each other during dynamic collision (i.e. they produce a mutual collision reaction, they will bounce off each other). Following figure illustrates the static/non-static, respondable/non-respondable behaviors ...
enter image description here

5 quora.com When will Google+ allow me to receive respondable text message updates like Facebook notifications?

Facebook mobile forwards me status updates from specific friends, and if I reply to that text, it will post my response on their status.

6 Quiplip: Respondable Holiday Card Set

Quiplip’s greeting cards deliver a diverse range of sentiments with a dinosauric dose of snark to wash ‘em down. [...] recipients will be absolutely overflowing with... you'll find out which emotion when they send the return postcard back to you!

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Based on the update, something along the lines of legitimate or reasonable seems most correct.

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