Usable or useable?
usable is an adjective meaning “Capable of being used”; useable is an adjective meaning “Alternative spelling of usable”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) usable is about 8.3 times as common as useable.
What is the difference between usable and useable?
| usable | useable | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | adjective |
| Meaning | Capable of being used Easy to use; exhibiting good usability | Alternative spelling of usable |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Pronunciation | /ˈjuː.zə.bəl/ | not recorded |
| In writing | 3.4 times per million words | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: usable and useable in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of usable and useable
usable
- 1
Capable of being used
- 2
Easy to use; exhibiting good usability
- 3
homosexual
useable
- 1
Alternative spelling of usable
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, usable or useable?
usable appears 3.4 times per million words; useable about once in every 2 million words.
usable 3.4 times per million wordsuseable about once in every 2 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search usable vs useable?
“usable vs useable” is searched about 170 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“useable vs usable”, “usable or useable”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.