# practical versus practicable **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 22, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practical-versus-practicable/514782 "2009-10-22T21:28:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practical-versus-practicable/514782/1 "2009-10-22T21:28:20Z")
Is there any real difference between these two words? I just looked them up in the dictionary and they had identical definitions of “able to be done or put into action.” [practicable](http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=62086&dict=CALD) [practical](http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=62099&dict=CALD) ---
**Author:** ![Uncertain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Uncertain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncertain)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practical-versus-practicable/514782/2 "2009-10-22T21:54:24Z")
FWIW, I think of them as different. Practical sort of means that it would make sense to do it that way, whereas practicable means that it’s possible to do the thing with a reasonable amount of effort and resources. I would say “I could fly to France to pick it up, but that wouldn’t be practical”. I wouldn’t use “practicable” there. Now, if we were talking about flying to the moon, that would be different. ---
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practical-versus-practicable/514782/3 "2009-10-22T22:18:04Z")
> [@Uncertain](#): > > FWIW, I think of them as different. Practical sort of means that it would make sense to do it that way, whereas practicable means that it’s possible to do the thing with a reasonable amount of effort and resources. I would say “I could fly to France to pick it up, but that wouldn’t be practical”. I wouldn’t use “practicable” there. Now, if we were talking about flying to the moon, that would be different. I agree with you that I wouldn’t use practicable there; however, I can’t think of a situation where only practicable would sound correct. For example, “Please send me the paperwork as soon as practicable.” Practical would sound just as appropriate to me in that instance. ---
**Author:** ![Uncertain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Uncertain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncertain)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practical-versus-practicable/514782/4 "2009-10-22T22:38:20Z")
Well, extracting gold from that low-quality ore would be practicable–indeed, we used to do it when the price of gold was higher–but it wouldn’t be practical given the current price of gold (we’d lose money due to the expense of extracting it). This is based only on my sense of the words.