probable

Pluralprobables

1. 1
   adjective

   Likely to happen, though not certain.

   Forecasters say snow is probable across the mountains by Friday evening.

   Without new investment, layoffs at the plant seem probable next quarter.

   Similarlikely, expected

   Oppositeunlikely, improbable

2. 2
   adjective

   Having a good chance, or the best chance among the alternatives, of turning out to be true.

   The probable explanation for the outage is a downed power line.

   Given the handwriting analysis, it is probable that the note was forged.

   Similarlikely, plausible, credible

   Oppositeimprobable, unlikely, implausible

   Note

   The everyday sense keeps the "credible" half of its Latin source, probābilis, "that may be proved, credible," from probāre, "to test." That verb also lies behind probe and prove, and behind the recent doublet provable. Probable works before a noun (the probable source of the failure) and in the frame it is probable that…, where likely is its plainer equivalent.

3. 3
   adjective

   Supporting or giving grounds for belief, without amounting to demonstration or proof.

   The defense argued that the fingerprints were probable evidence at best, suggestive but far from conclusive.

   Her field notes offered probable support for the theory without settling the question.

   Similarsuggestive, plausible

   Note

   Here the word describes evidence and argument, meaning what makes a conclusion believable without proving it. Blackstone writes of probable evidence in his Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769). Frazer, in The Golden Bough (1890), says Grimm has "made it probable" that the oldest Germanic sanctuaries were natural woods. Make it probable that is the construction to notice: it gives credit to an argument, not to a fact.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A person regarded as likely to appear, take part, or be selected.

   The quarterback is listed as a probable for Sunday's game despite his sore ankle.

   Among the names floated for ambassador, he is considered a probable.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   Something regarded as likely to happen or to be the case.

   Analysts moved the merger from a possible to a probable after the earnings call.

   We sorted the sales leads into probables and long shots.

   Note

   The noun takes a plural, probables, and is at home in tallies. In Hata, Izawa and Shores's Japanese Naval Fighter Aces 1932-45 (2013), pilots claim "18 destroyed and five probables": enemy aircraft probably shot down but not confirmed. Used this way, probables fill the band between the certain and the merely possible, and they are usually counted.

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