Viable means able to work and survive in practice. A viable business, a viable alternative, no longer viable.
It is the practical test rather than the theoretical one: a viable plan is one that could actually be carried out. In biology it means able to live: a viable seed, a viable foetus, and viability in that sense is a defined medical threshold. In business, viable means able to continue trading. Note viability; and that not viable is the polite way of closing something down.
1adjectiveviableAble to work and survive in practice.
“Is a shorter working week viable for a small business like ours?”
synonyms: workable, feasible
2adjectiveliveAble to live.
“Seeds kept in a cold, dry place can stay viable for many years.”
viable is a quality of being workable.
Also accepted in games: workable, feasible
French viable comes from vie, life, from Latin vita. Viable means life-able, which is exactly what the biological sense says and roughly what the business one means.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʷeyh₃-
French
viable
English, today
viable
Built from
Borrowed from French viable (further from vīta), with semantic influence of Latin viābilis (“passable”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA