Drinkable means safe and pleasant enough to drink. Water from a clean fountain is drinkable, but water from a muddy puddle isn't. When we say something is drinkable, we mean it won't make you sick and doesn't taste so bad that you'd spit it out.

The word often comes up when we're talking about water quality. After a water main breaks, the news might report that tap water isn't drinkable until repairs are finished. When you're camping, you need to know which streams have drinkable water and which don't. Cities spend millions making sure their water stays drinkable by filtering out dirt, chemicals, and germs.

People also use drinkable to describe other beverages. A drinkable lemonade isn't too sour or too sweet. Someone might say the coffee at a restaurant is “barely drinkable” if it tastes burnt or weak. Scientists and engineers sometimes use the fancier term potable to mean the same thing, especially when discussing water systems, but drinkable is the everyday word most people use.