What is a word to describe something that can be validated? From verify we have verifiable. What is the equivalent for valid or validate?
Obviously validifiable is not a word, so what is the alternative?
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5 Answers
The Oxford English Dictionary doesn't seem to know of a direct equivalent (which doesn't mean none exists, of course). The only derivatives it lists for validate are validated and validating. I think the closest you'll get (apart from something like provable, as Mr. Disappointment suggests) is "able to be validated." Or you could just coin validatable.
The word "validate" comes from Latin "validus" (strong, able) and "dare" (to give).
So if you want to create an adjective expressing possibility, you'd use the "-abilis" suffix and the word would be "validabilis" in Latin, or "validable" in English.
This would however be a neologism.
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+1 for the link to the good tool. Would you, however, make frequency of use the single reason to choose one alternative over the other? I find it remarkable how much the frequency for "validatable" rose after the 1990s. Would be interesting to find out why :-).– RakuAug 15, 2011 at 9:40
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1frequency of use in published works, yes, that is definitively a very good reason to choose one over the other (we are talking established usage in reviewed works; which can be 'wrong' as an exception, but is 'right' as a rule). However, do take ngrams with grain of salt i.e. read up on how it works in regards to punctuation, etc..– UnreasonAug 15, 2011 at 9:55
Nicholas noted that such a word did not exist, but I looked it up on Wiktionary, and came up with:
That can be validated; that stands up to validation.
So, there is actually such a word, and that should solve the problem.
The alternative would be a phrase:
able to be validated.
It was actually coined quite recently, and is now used quite a bit:
answered Aug 15, 2011 at 9:48
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@Unreason, thanks for pointing that out. I had to doublecheck, and found out that some dictionaries actually do list validatable as a valid word. Aug 15, 2011 at 10:16
If you don't or can't use Nicholas' suggestion of validatable you might need to resort to a phrase
To say that something is validatable, you could say that validity is verifiable.
Verify -> Verifiable; Validate -> Valid.
That something can be validated makes sense in a technical context, when describing input to a process. You could say it's possible to validate a financial model, for example, or that a computer program can validate the value entered in a text field. The financial model and the text field value are validatable.
On the other hand, stands up to validation and provable describe things which can pass the validation process, not things which will fail it. So they mean the same as valid.
