Words / P / Medicine

palpable

/ˈpælpəbl/

B2CEFR level
65/100Rarity: rare
TechnicalRegister

Medicine adjective

Able to be felt by touch during a physical examination.

On abdominal examination the mass was palpable just below the right costal margin.

Similar: tangible, perceptible

Topic: Clinical consultation in Medical English

Law adjective

So obvious that it can hardly be doubted.

There was a palpable risk of collapse that the engineer simply ignored.

Similar: obvious, evident

Topic: Tort in Legal English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More medicine words: Clinical consultation