In a question on SO I ran into a question about the meaning of word "closeable". As far as I know (and my teachers taught me so) it has two meanings: * possible to close * should be closed The discussion was about whether "closeable" should be used for the resources that *can be* closed, or for those that *should be* closed. I also searched for imperative forms of "-able", and found some examples, although they're really not so common: * applicable rules (rules that must be applied) * marriageable woman (the woman to be married) * considerable opinion (the opinion everyone should consider) My questions are: Generally, is the imperative usage of "-able" proper? What does "closeable" mean for a native speaker? The referenced question on SO: [Java naming convention: isCloseResources() vs doCloseResources?][1] (Bear with me, I'm not a native speaker. Thanks!) [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27100914/java-naming-convention-iscloseresources-vs-docloseresources/27100960#27100960