predictable

Etymology

It was formed from English predict + -able.^[2][3][4][5] Predict is from Latin praedīcō (“to foretell”), from prae- (“before”) and dīcō (“to say”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Able to be predicted or foretold: 1820, in the Monthly Repository,^[3][2] the mid-19th century in the Shorter Oxford.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Used of a person, the adjective means acting in a way that is easy to foresee,^[3][5] and in later use it often carries a pejorative sense: tiresomely unoriginal or conventional.^[3] The adverb predictably in the sense "as could have been predicted" is attested from 1914.^[2]

Timeline

• 1820 – able to be foretold.^[3][2]
• 1914 – predictably, as could have been expected.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Able to be predicted or expected: Rainfall here follows a predictable pattern.
2. Of a person or thing, behaving or happening in an expected way; often, dull and unoriginal: The film's ending was depressingly predictable.

Word family

• predictably

Related words

• predict
• prediction
• predictor
• unpredictable
• diction

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press