What does gettable mean?
Gettable is an adjective meaning that something can be obtained, acquired, or retrieved. It is especially useful when the emphasis is on whether information, an item, or an opportunity is accessible to the speaker or reader. For example, a report may be described as gettable from a website even when obtaining it also requires a subscription or a successful search. The word is less common than obtainable and available, and in some contexts it can sound mildly formal, bureaucratic, or technical. Phrases such as readily gettable and easily gettable are characteristic, particularly in academic prose. Gettable should not be understood as describing someone who is capable of getting something; it describes the thing that is able to be gotten. Its construction also makes it easy to distinguish from a related expression such as get-at-able, which focuses on a person's ability or opportunity to approach or obtain something.
adjectiveAble to be obtained or retrieved; obtainable.
- Able to be obtained, acquired, or retrieved; obtainable.
"The complete report is gettable from the library's website."
"The underlying data are gettable through the public API."
"Copies of the manuscript are readily gettable from the university library."
Gettable turns the simple act of getting into a question of access: is something obtainable at all?
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does gettable come from?
Gettable is an English formation created by combining the verb get with the productive suffix -able, meaning capable of being. The word get has English roots extending back to Old English gietan and ultimately to a Germanic ancestor meaning to obtain, fetch, or receive. Related formations include beget and forget, which preserve the same inherited root in different senses.
How gettable is actually used
Gettable is relatively uncommon in everyday speech and can sound somewhat formal or technical, particularly in academic and institutional writing. It means that something is available to be obtained, not that a person is able or permitted to get it.