What does allocatable mean?
Allocatable is an adjective describing something that can be allocated — that is, assigned, apportioned, or set aside for a particular purpose, recipient, or use. It is most at home in formal and technical registers. Economists and accountants use it when discussing which funds, costs, or resources are available for distribution among projects or departments, while computer scientists apply it to memory, processor registers, or arrays that a program can reserve dynamically as it runs. The word derives from the verb allocate, which traces back through French to the Latin locare, meaning to place or hire out, sharing its root with words such as location and dislocate. Because it is built from the suffix -able, it pairs naturally with terms like assignable and distributable. Though uncommon in everyday speech, allocatable is a precise and useful marker whenever a writer needs to state plainly that a resource is available to be divided up rather than fixed or already committed.
adjectiveCapable of being allocated; able to be assigned or set aside for a particular purpose, person, or use.
- (of resources, funds, time, or other assets) able to be assigned or apportioned to a particular purpose, recipient, or use.
- (computing) describing memory, registers, or arrays that can be dynamically reserved for use by a program at run time.
"The committee confirmed that the remaining funds were allocatable to any of the three regional projects."
"Only a portion of the budget was allocatable to capital expenditure this year."
"The compiler treats the array as allocatable, reserving space for it only when the program requests it."
In Fortran 95, ALLOCATABLE is an actual reserved keyword that lets programmers create arrays whose size is decided while the program runs — one of the few dictionary words embedded in a programming language standard.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of allocatable
Allocatable is formed from the verb allocate combined with the suffix -able, indicating capability. Allocate itself entered English from Dutch or French alloquer in the early 17th century, ultimately deriving from the Latin locare, 'to place' or 'to hire out', from locus, 'place'. This Latin root also underlies related words such as location, local, and dislocate, making them distant relatives of allocatable. As computing developed in the 20th century, the adjective acquired a specialized sense in programming languages, notably appearing as the ALLOCATABLE attribute in the Fortran 90/95 standards.
Related word forms
How allocatable is actually used
A formal, technical term encountered chiefly in economics, public finance, accounting, and computing. It rarely appears in casual conversation; in everyday contexts people more often say 'can be allocated' than 'is allocatable'. In computing, especially Fortran, it has a precise technical meaning tied to dynamic storage.
Easily confused with allocatable
Allocate is the verb meaning to distribute or assign something, while allocatable is the adjective describing something that can be so distributed.
Locatable means capable of being found or given a location, whereas allocatable means capable of being assigned or distributed for use.