Grammar and Punctuation The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation

Viable

Viable means "able or fit to live": viable cells, a viable fetus.

Thanks to SLIPSHOD EXTENSION, viable has become synonymous with possible, workable, feasible. Many purists consider this unacceptable. Roy Copperud, in American Usage and Style, says "the word has had the edge hopelessly ground off it."


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