Meaning & use
isolable
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparabletechnicalchemistry
Able to be separated from other substances or things and studied or obtained on its own.
Grammar: Usually describes a substance, compound or organism: an isolable compound.
Patterns
- isolable from something
The active compound proved isolable from the bark of the tree.
Only one intermediate in the reaction was isolable.
The virus is isolable from samples taken from the patient's throat.
adjectivebefore a nounformal
Able to be treated as a separate item or factor, apart from everything surrounding it.
Grammar: Used before a noun in analysis: an isolable cause.
Patterns
- isolable from something
The researchers could not find a single isolable cause for the decline.
Each variable must be isolable if the experiment is to be fair.
Few effects of the policy were cleanly isolable from other trends.
Common combinations
- isolable compound
- The team reported an isolable compound with strong antibacterial properties.
- isolable from
- The enzyme is readily isolable from yeast.
- readily isolable
- These bacteria are readily isolable in the laboratory.
- not isolable
- The unstable intermediate was not isolable at room temperature.
Synonyms and how they differ
- separable
- Separable is the everyday word for things that can be pulled apart and does not imply laboratory purification.
- detachable
- Detachable suggests a physical part that can be taken off, such as a hood, rather than a substance purified.
- distinct
- Distinct says something is clearly different, not that it can actually be separated out.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: isolable or insulable?
isolable vs insulable
Insulable means able to be covered to stop heat or electricity passing, which is a different idea from being separated out.
Practice
The chemist found that the unstable product was not ____ from the reaction mixture.
Choose one answer.
After 'was not' we need an adjective meaning able to be separated, so isolable. Isolated would describe what has already happened or means remote.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “isolable”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.