Ascertainable

Ascertainable is an adjective meaning capable of being ascertained; able to be determined, discovered, or verified with evidence or analysis. It denotes information, facts, or outcomes that can be established with reasonable certainty rather than guessed.

In legal and formal contexts, the term often arises in relation to standards or conclusions that must be verifiable. For example, an ascertainable standard in trusts and estates describes a discretionary provision tied to information that a fiduciary can reasonably determine. Common formulations refer to distributions for a beneficiary’s health, education, maintenance, and support, though the determination must be based on information actually available and verifiable.

Outside law, ascertainable is used in statistics, research, and investigations to indicate that a population, case, or cause can be identified or proven from the available data or records. It implies a level of measurability or traceability that allows conclusions to be drawn with confidence.

Etymology traces the word to ascertain, meaning to determine or discover, with the suffix -able indicating capability. The word is relatively formal and is more likely to appear in technical writing than in everyday speech.

Related terms include ascertain, ascertainment, and determinable; the opposite of ascertainable includes unknowable, indeterminable, and uncertain. Overall, ascertainable emphasizes verifiability and the potential to determine a fact or outcome using accessible information.