tractable
/ˈtɹæk.tə.bəl/
"tractable" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tractable” is an uncommon English word, ranked #74,591 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #74,591
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Capable of being easily led, taught, or managed.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tractable |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈtɹæk.tə.bəl/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #74,591 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tractable” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tractable is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtɹæk.tə.bəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #74,591 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
tractable has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English tractable, tractabel, from Latin tractābilis (“that may be touched, handled, or managed”), from tractō (“take in hand, handle, manage”), frequentative of trahō (“draw”). The correct English form is tractable, spelled T-R-A-C-T-A-B-L-E.
Definition
- 1Capable of being easily led, taught, or managed.
- 2Easy to deal with or manage.
- 3Capable of being shaped; malleable.
- 4Capable of being handled or touched.
- 5Sufficiently operationalizable or useful to allow a mathematical calculation to proceed toward a solution.
- 6Algorithmically solvable fast enough to be practically relevant, typically in polynomial time.
Etymology
From Middle English tractable, tractabel, from Latin tractābilis (“that may be touched, handled, or managed”), from tractō (“take in hand, handle, manage”), frequentative of trahō (“draw”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “tractable”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-R-A-C-T-A-B-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtɹæk.tə.bəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.