ALLOWABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does allowable mean? 

• ALLOWABLE (adjective)
  The adjective ALLOWABLE has 3 senses:

1. deductible according to the tax laws

2. that may be permitted especially as according to rule

3. deserving to be allowed or considered

  Familiarity information: ALLOWABLE used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALLOWABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deductible according to the tax laws

Similar:

deductible (acceptable as a deduction (especially as a tax deduction))

Sense 2

Meaning:

That may be permitted especially as according to rule

Synonyms:

allowable; permissible

Context example:

a permissible tax deduction

Also:

tolerable (capable of being borne or endured)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Deserving to be allowed or considered

Similar:

admissible (deserving to be admitted)

Derivation:

allow (allow or plan for a certain possibility; concede the truth or validity of something)

allow (consent to, give permission)

allow (afford possibility)

 Context examples 

The incidence of tumors, called malignant schwannomas, that were observed in the heart increased in male rats as they were exposed to increasing levels of RFR beyond the allowable cell phone emissions.

(High exposure to radiofrequency radiation linked to tumor activity in male rats, National Institutes of Health)

The study did not examine whether the use of the oldest red cells allowable (35-42 days old) affects outcomes, or if fresh red cells affect outcomes for children requiring large-volume red cell transfusions.

(Fresh red blood cell transfusions do not help critically ill children more than older cells, National Institutes of Health)

In order to assist a concealment so essential to me, I was led on to make more than an allowable use of the sort of intimacy into which we were immediately thrown.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

A reusable, "template" description of an allowable response to a stratification criterion.

(Defined Stratification Criterion Permissible Result, NCI Thesaurus)

The maximum voltage allowable to pass through an electromagnetic coil.

(Coil Strength, NCI Thesaurus)

I have now, as far as such a sentiment is allowable in human nature, nothing to reproach myself with; and if I mistake not, a strong sense of duty is no bad part of a woman's portion.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

One lesson, too, we have learned, if it be allowable to argue a particulari: that the brute beasts which are to the Count's command are yet themselves not amenable to his spiritual power; for look, these rats that would come to his call, just as from his castle top he summon the wolves to your going and to that poor mother's cry, though they come to him, they run pell-mell from the so little dogs of my friend Arthur.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Her tenderness for her friend seemed rather the first feeling of her heart; but that at such a moment was allowable; and once she gave her lover a flat contradiction, and once she drew back her hand; but Catherine remembered Henry's instructions, and placed it all to judicious affection.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Tom understood his father's thoughts, and heartily wishing he might be always as well disposed to give them but partial expression, began to see, more clearly than he had ever done before, that there might be some ground of offence, that there might be some reason for the glance his father gave towards the ceiling and stucco of the room; and that when he inquired with mild gravity after the fate of the billiard-table, he was not proceeding beyond a very allowable curiosity.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

In the country, an unpremeditated dance was very allowable; but in London, where the reputation of elegance was more important and less easily attained, it was risking too much for the gratification of a few girls, to have it known that Lady Middleton had given a small dance of eight or nine couple, with two violins, and a mere side-board collation.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)