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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > VIABLE

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pronounce VIABLE:

VYE uh bull
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connect this word to others:

In the most literal sense, something viable, like a plant or a fetus, can live: it can survive. 

You'll recognize viable's similarity to familiar words about life, like vital, vitamin, survive, revive, and vivid, all of which trace back to the Latin vita, "life," or vivere, "to live." 

See if you can recall some other closely related terms:

1.Viv__ty is liveliness.

2. To rev__ify something is to bring it back to life.

3. A mod__ viv___i (two words) is a way of living.

4. Taed___ vit__ (two words) is the dullness of living.

5. J___ d__viv__ (three words) is the joy of living.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)  

definition:

"Viable" traces back through French to the Latin word for "life," vita. Since the late 1700s, we've used it to mean "able to live: capable of surviving," and we've applied it to things like seeds, embryos, and fetuses.

By the late 1800s, we were also applying it figuratively to plans, ideas, nations, and other abstract things. In this sense, viable things are the kind that have a good chance of working, succeeding, or continuing.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "a viable business idea."

Other forms: 

The adverb is "viably." Here's Siddhartha Mukherjee: "For a new species to arise, organisms must no longer be able to reproduce viably with each other."

And the noun is "viability." Here's Brett Adee: "People talk about the financial viability of the bee industry."

The opposite words are "inviable," "inviably," and "inviability."

how to use it:

When you want to compare some new possibility (often a plan or an idea) to a seed or plant that can grow and thrive, or to a fetus that can survive and thrive outside its mother, call it "viable."

It's a formal and very common word.

We often use it to talk about business plans and ideas, especially when we mean they will make money. More specifically, we talk about viable companies, products, inventions, concepts, budgets and so on.

We also talk about viable arguments and defenses, viable choices and options, viable goals and solutions, and even viable people, such as viable candidates for certain jobs or roles.

But we can also be literal and talk about viable specimens, species, soil, and planets: the kind that can live, or can foster life.

examples:

"The projects kept coming, and Feider realized that he had a viable business. 'I thought, wow, this can work,' he says. O2 Treehouse now employs around 40 people." 
  — Adele Peters, Fast Company, 17 July 2025

"In a world that is so capable of hurting itself, what is the point of dedicating my life to pretty dresses? ... I found myself fueled by a simple, viable hope: If I could dedicate myself to making beautiful things that bring me joy, some others out there may gain joy from them as well." 
   — Rebecca Schoneveld, New York Times, 16 April 2020

has this page helped you understand "viable"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "viable" without saying "workable" or "feasible."

try it out:

According to Jon Pareles, the musician L'Rain, whose real name is Taja Cheek and who holds a day job at an art institute, said:

"Being a musician never occurred to me as being a viable job option, ever."

In other words, despite being a musician, she has to earn a steady paycheck somewhere else. It makes me wish that being a musician would be a viable job for anyone with the talent to do it.

With musicians in mind as an example, talk about another job that isn't viable for most people. What would have to change in our society to make it viable for anyone with the talent to do it?




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Idiom Savant."

Flex your facility with familiar phrases by quickly pairing them off with words closely associated in meaning.

For example, you might pair the idiom "a cat has nine lives" with the word "resilient;" "water under the bridge" with "inconsequential;" and "when it rains, it pours" with "proliferate."

Try these today:

Pair these idioms...

   1. all for one and one for all
   2. as good as new
   3. by hook or by crook
   4. here today, gone tomorrow
   5. par for the course

With these words...

   A. evanesce
   B. reciprocal
   C. resigned
   D. revivify
   E. unscrupulous

To see the answers, scroll all the way down. 

review this word:

1. The exact opposite of VIABLE is INVIABLE, meaning

A. LOOSE.
B. DOOMED.
C. DOUBLE-SIDED.

2. In science fiction, or perhaps real life someday, a newly discovered viable planet is one _____.

A. on which humans could live
B. that could yield valuable resources
C. that can be shifted out of the path of a meteor




Answers to the review questions:
1. B
2. A

From the game:

1. all for one and one for all: reciprocal
2. as good as new: revivify
3. by hook or by crook: unscrupulous
4. here today, gone tomorrow: evanesce
5. par for the course: resigned

Are your answers different? No worries, as long as you can explain the connections you see.


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


From my blog:
On vocabulary...
      36 ways to study words.
      Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
      How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
      How to improve any sentence.
      How to motivate our kids to write.
      How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
      How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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