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(From the new 5th edition of Garner's Modern English Usage.) | | | | persuadable; *persuadible; *persuasible. | persuadable; *persuadible; *persuasible. The predominant form is persuadable. The others are NEEDLESS VARIANTS. See -ABLE (A). What follows may seem like a one-off error, but usage mistakes are like cockroaches and ants: where you find one, you’re bound to find others. *Persuasibility (a variant of persuadability) has been misused for persuasiveness (= the quality of engendering belief or commitment) here: “Where status equality exists, then other factors such as the inherent persuasibility [read persuasiveness] of the arguments may be salient.” Elizabeth Chell, The Psychology of Behaviour in Organizations 103 (1987). Arguments can be persuasive but never persuadable. The fanciness of *persuasibility may have misled the writer. | Current ratio in print (persuadable vs. *persuasible): 27:1 | Have a usage query? Professor Garner has probably covered it in his newest edition of Garner’s Modern English Usage (5th ed. 2022), published by Oxford University Press. Once you take a peek, you’ll fall into the world of usage as you delve deeper into the book. Or a legal-usage query? Check out his Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage (3d ed. 2011), also published by Oxford. | Advanced Legal Writing & Editing Live Online 2024 | Attend the most popular CLE seminar of all time. More than 225,000 people—including lawyers, judges, law clerks, and paralegals—have benefited since 1991.
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