What does passible mean?
Passible is a formal adjective meaning that something can be passed on, transferred, or inherited. In legal contexts, it may describe property, an estate, or a right whose ownership can pass to another person. The word also has a theological meaning: something passible is liable to suffer, change, or pass away. In that sense, passibility is associated with mortality and the limitations of created existence, while impassibility denotes an unchanging or incapable-of-suffering state. Modern speakers encounter passible much less often than the more familiar passable, but the two words are not interchangeable. Passible concerns transferability or mortality, whereas passable concerns whether a route, barrier, or difficulty can be crossed. The term is consequently characteristic of legal, religious, and philosophical prose rather than everyday conversation.
adjectiveCapable of being passed or transferred, especially as property or an inheritance. In theological contexts, liable to suffering or to passing away.
- Capable of being passed, transferred, or inherited.
- Liable to suffering, change, or passing away, especially in theological usage.
"The court determined that the estate was passible and could therefore be transferred to the heir."
"The lawyer explained that the property was passible and therefore subject to inheritance."
"Human life is passible, unlike the impassible permanence attributed to God in traditional theology."
Passible hides a paradox: in law it describes what can be handed on, while in theology it describes mortality itself.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does passible come from?
Passible comes through post-classical Latin from Latin passus, a participle associated with passing, transferring, and being conveyed. English words such as passive, passage, passport, and bypass belong to the same extended Latin family, although they developed different meanings.
How passible is actually used
A rare, formal word used chiefly in legal and theological writing. In theology, it is the counterpart of impassible; in property law, it contrasts with property that cannot be transferred or inherited.
Easily confused with passible
Passible means capable of being transferred or, in theology, liable to suffering or passing away, whereas passable means able or permitted to be crossed or traversed.
Impassible is the direct antonym of passible and means incapable of being transferred or, in theology, incapable of suffering or passing away.