solvable

Etymology

solve + -able. Doublet of soluble.

adj

1. Capable of being solved.
   a solvable problem
   1677, Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, London: William Shrowsbery, “De homine,” Chapter 2, p. 56, Intellective Memory, which I call an act of the intellective faculty because it is wrought by it, though I do not inquire how or where, because it is not solvible:
   Questions of this Nature may be easily solvable in the simple Cases. 1732, Henry Home, Lord Kames, “Beneficium cedendarum actionum”, in Essays upon Several Subjects in Law, Edinburgh, page 19
   1856, Abraham Lincoln, Speech delivered before the first Republican State Convention of Illinois, Bloomington, 29 May, 1856, in Arthur Brooks Lapsley (ed.), The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, New York: The Lamb Publishing Company, Volume 2, p. 271, It is a very strange thing, and not solvable by any moral law that I know of, that if a man loses his horse, the whole country will turn out to help hang the thief; but if a man but a shade or two darker than I am is himself stolen, the same crowd will hang one who aids in restoring him to liberty.
   Would Mr. Farfrae stay in Casterbridge despite his words and her father’s dismissal? His occult breathings to her might be solvable by his course in that respect. 1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 17, in The Mayor of Casterbridge, volume 1, London: Smith, Elder, page 211
   This is a mystery that is solvable with a phone call. 2010, Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question, New York: Bloomsbury, Part 1, Chapter 4, p. 97
2. (obsolete) Capable of being dissolved or liquefied.
   1664, John Chandler (translator), Van Helmont’s Works, London: Lodowick Lloyd, A Treatise of Fevers, Chapter 8, p. 971, […] they administer Pearles, and Corrals being beaten to dust or dissolved in distilled vinegar, or the juice of limons, and again dryed, and solvable in any potable liquour:
3. (obsolete) Able to pay one's debts.
   The Government is solvable in case of Loss, whereas private Men often fail; 1703, John Dennis, A Proposal for Putting a Speedy End to the War, London: Daniel Brown and Andrew Bell, page 19
4. (obsolete, rare) Capable of being paid and discharged.
   solvable obligations