What does navigable mean?
Word: Navigable
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Navigable means able to carry boats and ships because it is wide and deep enough.
How do you spell navigable?
Syllables: nav - i - ga - ble
Tricky part: The ending is the question: ible or able? Many students pick ible because the vowel is weak. This word takes able.
Watch out for: navigible, navigatable
Memory tip: If a boat is able to sail it, the river is navigable: keep the word able at the end.
Navigable in a sentence
Example 1: Only the lower stretch of the river is navigable in summer.
Example 2: Clearing the weeds made the backwaters navigable again for houseboats.
Example 3: The team built a small raft to test whether the stream was navigable.
Fun Fact
India's National Waterway 1 follows the Ganga for about 1,600 kilometres, keeping a channel navigable for barges between Haldia in West Bengal and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
navvigable
a) g
b) l
c) b
d) v
Show answer
d) v. The v stays single, just as it does in navy.
Mingle-Mangle
Unscramble the jumbled word in the sentence and choose the correct word:
After the rains the canal is aialnvbeg only by small wooden boats.
a) navigable
b) manageable
c) vegetable
d) negligible
Show answer
a) navigable. The v and the b together leave vegetable or this word, and vegetable has no n.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word navigable as used in the sentence:
The Brahmaputra is navigable for hundreds of kilometres through Assam.
a) shallow
b) passable
c) frozen
d) narrow
Show answer
b) passable. Waters that are passable let boats get through.
Spell-o-Spell
Three of these words are spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word:
1. resevoir 2. estuary 3. tributary 4. navigable
a) the wide mouth of a river where it meets the sea
b) a large lake where water is stored for a town
c) a small river that flows into a larger one
d) open and deep enough for vessels to use
Show answer
b) a large lake where water is stored for a town. Reservoir has an r before the v; the other three are correct.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. After heavy silt settles in a river, it may stop being navigable because ____.
a) the river banks have become too green
b) the water has become too shallow for boats
c) the fish have moved further downstream
d) the tourists have gone back to the hills
Show answer
b) the water has become too shallow for boats
2. Which of these is the most likely to be described as navigable?
a) a thin trickle behind a village
b) a broad, deep canal linking two ports
c) a dry stream bed in the desert
d) a rocky waterfall in the hills
Show answer
b) a broad, deep canal linking two ports
