What does increasable mean?
Increasable means capable of being increased. It describes a quantity, limit, capacity, value, or other feature that can grow in size or magnitude without being inherently fixed. The adjective is especially useful when discussing a baseline or allocation that may later receive additional resources, such as an increasable funding ceiling, an increasable energy target, or an increasable service capacity. It does not itself mean “increased” or “increasing”; it expresses the possibility of increase. Although the word appears in technical, administrative, and policy contexts, it is less common than the more flexible phrase “capable of increase.” Its unusual ending may make it seem more technical than its meaning warrants, so writers should consider whether a simpler expression would be more natural in general writing.
adjectiveCapable of being increased; able to grow in size, amount, intensity, or value.
- Capable of being increased in size, amount, intensity, or value.
"The committee identified the renewable energy target as readily increasable if funding were made available."
"The limit is not fixed and remains increasable until the allocation period ends."
"Her proposal was to create an increasable fund that communities could expand according to local need."
Increasable points to something that is not yet larger, but has the potential to become so.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does increasable come from?
Increasable was formed in English by combining increase with the suffix -able, meaning “capable of being.” The larger word increase comes through Old French from Latin increscere, formed from the prefix in- and crescere, “to grow.” Related Latin forms are preserved in cognates including increment, decrement, crescent, and crescendo.
Related word forms
How increasable is actually used
This is a relatively uncommon and formal adjective. In everyday English, increased, expandable, or capable of increase is often clearer and more idiomatic.
Easily confused with increasable
Increaseable is an alternative spelling of increasable, but increasable is the more usual form in modern English.