certifiable

That can or must be certified.

Adjective

  1. That can or must be certified.
  2. Mentally ill to such an extent that involuntary institutionalization is appropriate; crazy.
    • If any person said to you in 1950 that in seventeen years Miss Stalin would defect to the West, you would rightly have considered that person certifiable. She has now done it, with impressive smoothness and conviction....

Origin

Etymology tree English certify Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlis Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English certifiable From certify + -able.

Forms

more certifiable most certifiable

Synonyms

insane mad nuts

Derived

certifiableness certifiably noncertifiable uncertifiable

Noun

  1. A crazy person.
    • Forget the certifiables who are scrawling Hitler mustaches on pictures of the president. - 2009 August 22, Bob Herbert, “Voices of Anxiety”, in New York Times:

Forms

certifiables