CS Knowledge Base

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

• (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

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.

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

comparable (plural comparables)

1. Something suitable for comparison.
   • 2009 January 2, Fred A. Bernstein, “Catskill Home Prices: How Low Will They Go?”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

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

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

From Latin comparābilis.

comparable (epicene, plural comparables)

1. comparable

• comparar
• incomparable

• “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

Borrowed from Latin comparābilis.

• 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)

comparable m or f (masculine and feminine plural comparables)

1. comparable

   Antonym: incomparable

• comparablement

• comparar
• incomparable

• “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

From Latin comparābilis.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.pa.ʁabl/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

comparable (plural comparables)

1. comparable (suitable to be compared)

• comparabilité

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

• comparábel

From Latin comparābilis.

comparable m or f (plural comparables)

1. comparable

• comparar
• incomparábel / incomparable

• “comparable”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026

• comperable

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

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

comparable (Late Middle English)

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

• English: comparable

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

From Latin comparābilis.

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

comparable m or f (masculine and feminine plural comparables)

1. comparable

   Synonym: equiparable

   Antonym: incomparable

• “comparable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025