What does avertable mean?
Avertable is an adjective meaning that an unpleasant or dangerous outcome can be prevented, avoided, or turned aside. It is especially useful when describing risks, accidents, conflicts, disasters, and other events that might otherwise occur but are not inevitable. In a sentence such as “The warning reduced the risk of an avertable collision,” the word identifies the outcome as something that human action could have prevented. The term is formal but widely understood and commonly appears in public-safety, political, environmental, and business contexts. Its usefulness lies in distinguishing events that are genuinely unavoidable from those that result from insufficient attention, preparation, or intervention. Avertable carries a practical implication: prevention is possible and therefore worth pursuing.
adjectiveCapable of being prevented, avoided, or turned aside.
- Capable of being prevented, avoided, or turned aside.
"The timely intervention averted an avertable disaster in the region."
"The warning system helped avert an avertable collision at the busy intersection."
"Many workplace injuries are avertable when appropriate safety measures are followed."
Avertable means a bad outcome is not yet destiny.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does avertable come from?
The word was formed in English by adding the suffix -able to avert, with the same sense of being capable of being turned aside or prevented. Avert comes through Old French from Latin avertō, meaning “to turn away” or “to divert.” The broader Latin root vertere, “to turn,” also appears in cognates such as convert, while adverse and averse belong to the same semantic field of turning toward or away.
Related word forms
How avertable is actually used
The word is formal and especially common in discussions of danger, disaster, conflict, and harm. It emphasizes that an unwanted outcome is possible to prevent, not that it has actually been prevented.
Easily confused with avertable
Avertable means capable of being prevented or turned aside, especially when referring to a harmful outcome, whereas avoidable means capable of being avoided or bypassed.
Avertible is a less common variant of avertable with essentially the same meaning, while avertable is the more usual modern spelling.