überschaubare

Überschaubare is a German adjective meaning manageable, foreseeable, or easy to oversee. It describes things whose scope, complexity, or amount can be grasped at a glance or with reasonable effort. The term is often used to indicate boundedness or limited complexity, in contrast to situations that are unüberschaubar or unübersichtlich.

Grammatically, überschaubar declines like other adjectives. With an indefinite article, you can say ein überschaubares Risiko (neuter singular). With a definite article: das überschaubare Risiko. Feminine singular: eine überschaubare Menge. Plural: überschaubare Mengen. The word can also appear in phrases such as in überschaubaren Bereichen. Predicative use is possible as well: Das Projekt ist überschaubar.

Usage and nuance: überschaubare is common in business, administration, research, and everyday language. It refers to quantities, risks, budgets, timeframes, or data sets that are small or simple enough to be controlled or understood without excessive effort. It is related to, but distinct from, übersichtlich (clear or well-organized) and beherrschbar (controlable). While überschaubar emphasizes the ease of estimation or supervision, übersichtlich emphasizes clarity of structure rather than limit of size.

Etymology and related terms: from über- (over, about) plus schaubar (able to be seen or regarded), rooted in schauen (to look). Related terms include beherrschbar (manageable) and unüberschaubar (invisible to overview) as antonyms. Überschaubare is primarily a descriptive, evaluative term used across disciplines to characterize bounded scope.