What does postponable mean?
Postponable means capable of being delayed or put off until a later time. The adjective is typically used when an event, decision, meeting, or planned action remains eligible for postponement but has not necessarily been delayed yet. For example, a committee may report that a decision is postponable if further discussion is still needed. The word is more formal and much less common than postponable alternatives such as delayable, and it is particularly suited to institutional, administrative, and professional contexts. Its formation is transparent: it is derived from postpone by adding the suffix -able, meaning “able to be.” While postpone is the more familiar verb, postponable is useful when the emphasis falls on whether a matter can be rescheduled rather than on the act of rescheduling it.
adjectiveCapable of being delayed or put off until a later time.
- Able or eligible to be delayed until a later time.
"The committee concluded that the decision was postponable until the following week."
"The match was postponable, so the organizers moved it to the weekend."
"No final decision was made because the issue remained postponable."
Postponable means the wait can be extended, not that the event has already been delayed.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does postponable come from?
Postponable was formed in English from postpone and the suffix -able. Postpone comes from Latin postponere, a combination of post, meaning “after,” and ponere, meaning “to place,” and originally conveyed the idea of placing something after something else. Its later English sense developed into “to put off until a later time,” from which postponable came to mean “able to be put off.”
Related word forms
How postponable is actually used
This is a relatively formal and uncommon adjective, appearing more often in professional or institutional contexts than in everyday speech. It is normally used for a decision, event, meeting, action, or other undertaking that can be put off.
Easily confused with postponable
Postponable is an adjective describing something that can be delayed, whereas postpone is a verb meaning to delay something.