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viability

US/ˌvaɪəˈbɪlɪti/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,160 of 15,258mostly written

Viability is whether something can survive and work. Commercial viability, question the viability, the viability of the plan.

In medicine it has a precise and much-argued meaning about the point at which a foetus could survive outside the womb. In business it means whether a venture can pay its own way without more money going in.

Definitions of viability

  1. 1nounviabilityWhether something can survive and work.C1

    “The bank doubted the viability of the business and refused to lend it money.”

viability is a quality.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *gʷeyh₃-

  2. French

    viable

  3. English

    viable

  4. English, today

    viability

Built from

  • viābilis · Latin — passable

From viable + -ity. viable Borrowed from French viable (further from vīta), with semantic influence of Latin viābilis (“passable”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

viability in the wild

  • The Court overturned the Roe trimester framework in favor of a viability analysis, thereby allowing states to implement abortion restrictions that apply during the first trimester of pregnancy.

    Planned Parenthood v. Casey

  • Population viability analysis (PVA) is a species-specific method of risk assessment frequently used in conservation biology.

    Population viability analysis

  • Fetal viability is the ability of a fetus to survive outside the uterus.

    Fetal viability

  • The park is 440 hectares and was created to enhance the viability of the Kingfisher Creek Ecological Preserve.

    Kingfisher Creek Provincial Park

  • A viability assay is an assay that is created to determine the ability of organs, cells or tissues to maintain or recover a state of survival.

    Viability assay

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the viable family

viable

viability — used about once every 18,318 pages · #13,160 · point at the bar for the others