comparable

English

Etymology

From Middle English comparable, from Middle French comparable, from Latin comparābilis. By surface analysis, compare +‎ -able.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmpəɹəbəl/, [ˈkʰɒmpʰəɹəbəl] ~ [ˈkʰɒmpʰɹəbl̩]

    • Audio (Southern England):

      (file)

  • IPA^(key): /kəmˈpæɹəbəl/, [kəmˈpæɹəbəl] ~ [kəmˈpæɹəbl̩]

    • Audio (Southern England):

      (file)

• (General American, Atlantic Canada)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈkɑmpɚəbəl/, [ˈkʰɑmpʰɚəbəl] ~ [ˈkʰɑmpʰɹ̩əbl̩]
  • (Mary–marry–merry merger)
    • IPA^(key): /kəmˈpɛɹəbəl/, [kəmˈpɛɹəbəl] ~ [kəmˈpɛɹəbl̩]
• (US, dialectal, without the Mary–marry–merry merger)
  • IPA^(key): /kəmˈpæɹəbəl/, [kəmˈpæɹəbəl] ~ [kəmˈpæɹəbl̩]
• Hyphenation: com‧par‧a‧ble

Adjective

comparable (comparative more comparable, superlative most comparable)

1. (often with to) Able to be compared (to).

   An elephant is comparable in size to a double-decker bus.

   You can't say that robbing a bank is like pickpocketing. The two are just not comparable.

   • 1951 April, Stirling Everard, “A Matter of Pedigree”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 273:

     The firebox married to Britannia's boiler is not, however, in the Doncaster tradition, notwithstanding that it is comparable in dimensions to that of the "V2."

   • 2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 22:

     As yet, we don't know what the comparable figures will be like for the current financial year which ends in March 2022, but we can have a good stab at approximating them.

2. (often with to) Similar (to); like.
   • 2013 July-August, Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, in American Scientist:

     Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene, another solvent, which has the well-known property of causing this type of cancer.

3. (mathematics) Constituting a pair in a particular partial order.

   Six and forty-two are comparable in the divides order, but six and nine are not.

5. (grammar, of an adjective) Having comparative and superlative forms.

   Synonym: gradable

   "Big" is a comparable adjective because it can take the forms "bigger" and "biggest"; "unique" and "amazing", in contrast, are not comparable adjectives.

Usage notes

• The pronunciation /ˈkɒmp(ə)ɹəbl̩/ is almost never used for sense 4.

Derived terms

• biocomparable
• comparability
• comparable function
• comparableness
• comparable worth
• comparably
• incomparable
• intercomparable
• noncomparable (or non-comparable)
• uncomparable

Translations

able to be compared

• Asturian: comparable
• Bulgarian: сравним (bg) (sravnim)
• Catalan: comparable (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 比得上 (zh) (bǐdeshàng), 可比較的, 可比较的 (kě bǐjiào de)

• Czech: srovnatelný m
• Dutch: vergelijkbaar (nl)
• Esperanto: komparebla
• Finnish: verrattavissa oleva
• French: comparable (fr)
• Galician: comparable (gl), comparábel (gl)
• German: vergleichbar (de); (in grammar) steigerbar (de), komparabel (de), komparierbar, graduierbar
• Greek: συγκρίσιμος (el) (sygkrísimos)
• Hindi: तुल्य (hi) (tulya)
• Hungarian: összehasonlítható (hu), összemérhető (hu), fogható (hu), hasonlítható (hu), mérhető (hu)
• Italian: comparabile (it)
• Japanese: 比較できる (ja) (ひかくできる, hikaku dekiru)
• Korean: 비슷하다 (ko) (biseuthada), 견줄 만하다 (gyeonjul manhada), 비교(比較)할 수 있다 (bigyohal su itda), 비교(比較)가 가능(可能)하다 (bigyo-ga ganeunghada)
• Macedonian: споредлив (sporedliv)
• Middle English: comparable
• Norwegian: sammenlignbar (no), komparabel (no)
• Old English: wiþmetendlīċ
• Polish: porównywalny (pl)
• Portuguese: comparável (pt)
• Romanian: comparabil (ro)
• Russian: сравни́мый (ru) (sravnímyj), сопостави́мый (ru) (sopostavímyj)
• Slovak: porovnateľný
• Spanish: comparable (es), equiparable
• Swedish: jämförbar (sv)
• Turkish: karşılaştırılabilir
• Ukrainian: порівня́нний (porivnjánnyj)

similar — see similar

gradable — see gradable

Noun

comparable (plural comparables)

1. Something suitable for comparison.
   • 2009 January 2, Fred A. Bernstein, “Catskill Home Prices: How Low Will They Go?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 May 2025:

     And the appraiser said he couldn't come up with comparables, because there hadn't been any sales nearby in several months.

Further reading

• “comparable”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• comparable in Britannica Dictionary
• comparable in Ozdic collocation dictionary
• “comparable adjectives, gradable adjectives”, in Google Books Ngram Viewer.

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin comparābilis.

Adjective

comparable (epicene, plural comparables)

1. comparable

Related terms

• comparar
• incomparable

Further reading

• “comparable”, in Diccionariu de la llingua asturiana [Dictionary of the Asturian Language] (in Asturian), 1st edition, Academy of the Asturian Language [Asturian: Academia de la Llingua Asturiana], 2000, →ISBN

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin comparābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Central) [kum.pəˈɾab.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [kom.pəˈɾab.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [kom.paˈɾa.ble]
• IPA^(key): (Northwestern) [kom.paˈɾab.ble]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

comparable m or f (masculine and feminine plural comparables)

1. comparable

   Antonym: incomparable

Derived terms

• comparablement

Related terms

• comparar
• incomparable

Further reading

• “comparable”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

French

Etymology

From Latin comparābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.pa.ʁabl/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Adjective

comparable (plural comparables)

1. comparable (suitable to be compared)

Related terms

• comparabilité

Further reading

• “comparable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Galician

Alternative forms

• comparábel
• comparável (reintegrationist)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Latin comparō

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom

Proto-Italic *-ðlom

Proto-Italic *-ðlis

Latin -bilis

Latin comparābilisder.

Galician comparable

Derived from Latin comparābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kompaˈɾable/ [kom.paˈɾa.β̞lɪ]
• Rhymes: -able
• Hyphenation: com‧pa‧ra‧ble

Adjective

comparable m or f (plural comparables)

1. comparable

Related terms

• comparar
• incomparábel / incomparable

Further reading

• “comparable”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026
• Antón Santamarina, Ernesto X. González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “comparable”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Middle English

Alternative forms

• comperable

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French comparable, from Latin comparābilis; equivalent to comparen +‎ -able.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkɔmpaˈraːbəl/, /ˌkɔmpaˈraːblə/, /ˈkɔmpərabəl/

Adjective

comparable (Late Middle English)

1. Of identical or similar value; comparing favourably.
2. Comparable, commensurable; suitable for comparison.

Descendants

• English: comparable

References

• “comparāble, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Latin comparō

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom

Proto-Italic *-ðlom

Proto-Italic *-ðlis

Latin -bilis

Latin comparābilisder.

Spanish comparable

Derived from Latin comparābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kompaˈɾable/ [kõm.paˈɾa.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: com‧pa‧ra‧ble

Adjective

comparable m or f (masculine and feminine plural comparables)

1. comparable

   Synonym: equiparable

   Antonym: incomparable

Derived terms

• comparabilidad
• comparablemente

Related terms

• comparar
• incomparable

Further reading

• “comparable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), 24th edition, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 30 October 2026