How can one choose between "tunable" and "tuneable"?

Question

Both "tunable" and "tuneable" seem to be in common usage.

Is there a source which can be used to justify a preference for one or the other for general usage, possibly as a function of whether one is considering a particular nationality or dialect of English?

Some words have two possible forms before -able; likeable/likable, moveable/movable, loveable/lovable, so in that case it's really up to you or your chosen style guide/dictionary. Other contexts are more fully covered in that link. — FumbleFingers, Nov 19 '15 at 17:56
I have observed (here in the US Midwest) that the "e" has slowly been disappearing from such words, beginning, perhaps, in the early 70s. When I was a kid the "e" was present in most such words, but, eg, many spell-checker dictionaries now reject the "e". — Hot Licks, Nov 19 '15 at 19:21
@Ricky : Not according to Merriam-Webster though I'm guessing your comment was just a joke. — Mefitico, Apr 24 '19 at 13:01
@Mefitico : It's not a joke. It's pointing out the possible misunderstanding that makes people leave the terminal -e in the word, finding that tunable feels 'wrong'. See the 'fishy' allusion in the answer below from 2015. — lly, Apr 24 '19 at 13:23
Is there a source? Sure, plenty. For what it's worth, the OED entry doesn't note any national preferences and just places the headword as "tunable | tuneable", alongside "tunableness | tuneableness" and "tunably | tuneably". I assume they weren't paying much attention to the entry, however, since they also gave it the sole pronunciation "/tjuːnəb(ə)l/". — lly, Apr 24 '19 at 13:27
We used to “tune” radios and TV sets. Once upon a time, when every middle-class household had a piano, the instrument had to be “tuned”. It’s still a valid concept, but it’s somewhat dated for software. — , Aug 22 '19 at 15:18
@Ricky Pretty sure it'd be "capable of being stored in a tun". ;) — nick012000, Feb 08 '20 at 07:00
Does this answer your question? "Updatable" vs. "Updateable": which is correct? — KillingTime, Nov 04 '20 at 07:33
@KillingTime not really, unfortunately. It seems to confirm that they're both commonly used - I was wondering if there are any style guides that recommend one way or another, or perhaps data on whether one variant is more common in certain regions. — Patrick Sanan, Nov 05 '20 at 17:44

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 04 '21 at 08:16

According to this Google Ngram, "tuneable" was more common in the beginning of the 19th century and then both "tunable" and "tuneable" became less used. After the 1920s, "tunable" has become more prevalent than "tuneable". But I believe both of them are equally correct and which one to use is a matter of taste. "Tuneable" is made from "tune" and "able", if you remove the "e" or not, it has no significant impact on either the meaning or pronunciation of the word.

Lexico has both versions. Merriam Webster says "tuneable" is a variant of "tunable".

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 19 '15 at 18:57

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I think you will find the last part of this page helpful. 1

tuneable: It is still not too old-fashioned to cling to tuneable, though sentiment is moving towards the Americanised variant. But by choosing tunable you need to be consistent, which ultimately means adopting aging instead of ageing. Scaleable does not become as clearly readable as scalable -- which is why the British prefers to keep the -e- in its rightful place. Americans only have the choice of tunable, luckily British English retains the -e-. The US variant looks much too "fishy" if you ask me.

edited Nov 19 '15 at 18:57

Patrick Sanan

372

answered Nov 19 '15 at 18:00

Aniket Mehta

73

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This implication here is that "tunable" is more common in American English. – Patrick Sanan Nov 19 '15 at 18:08
@Patrick: It's probably true that *loveable* is slightly more likely in current BrE, but as this NGram shows, even Brits have decisively favoured *lovable* for well over a century. I'm sure it'll be the same for all words of that general pattern. – FumbleFingers Nov 19 '15 at 18:34
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"Scaleable does not become as clearly readable as scalable -- which is why the British prefers to keep the -e- in its rightful place." Something wrong there: the first clause argues against the -e- but the second argues to keep it. On the score of readability, "scaleable" seems easier to understand because the element "scale" is clear, whereas in "scalable" it isn't even obvious that the first "a" has the vowel of "scale" rather than that of "gala" or that of "balance". Perhaps the author accidentally swapped the two spellings? – Rosie F Feb 08 '20 at 07:19
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"But by choosing tunable you need to be consistent, which ultimately means adopting aging instead of ageing. " - I don't think that's true at all. You should be consistent in how you spell any given word, and I would agree that you should probably be consistent about any other words ending in "une", but I don't think every word ending in "e" has to be treated the same way. – nnnnnn Nov 04 '20 at 07:19

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 03 '21 at 13:07

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Lengusa corrects it as ‘tunable’. It has lots of contemporary and credible sources. I would suggest you use ‘tunable’.

https://lengusa.com/sentence-examples/Tuneable

edited Apr 03 '21 at 13:07

Edwin Ashworth

83,272

answered Apr 03 '21 at 11:35

renderhappy

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How can one choose between "tunable" and "tuneable"?

3 Answers3