Definition of "palpable" []

• Capable of being handled, touched, or felt; tangible: "Anger rushed out in a palpable wave through his arms and legs” ( Herman Wouk). (adjective)
• Easily perceived; obvious: "There was a palpable sense of expectation in the court” ( Nelson DeMille). See Synonyms at perceptible. (adjective)
• Medicine That can be felt by palpating: a palpable tumor. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Seeing the fields rimmed by trees or the homey, rundown tavern really makes the earth and the rain palpable to the reader."
• "A familiar aura of sweetness and loss reminiscent of Salinger is palpable from the first pages of the book, when we meet Jane's older brother Henry, who, by introducing his "mature" girlfriend to the family has indelibly altered the paradigm of familial relationships with which young Jane is accustomed."
• "So palpable is this fact that we have commonly accepted it, and taken it for granted that this relation must be a continuous source of trouble to humanity."