Definition of "probable" []

• Likely to happen or to be true: War seemed probable in 1938. The home team, far ahead, is the probable winner. (adjective)
• Likely but uncertain; plausible. (adjective)
• Theology Of or relating to opinions and actions in ethics and morals for whose lawfulness intrinsic reasons or extrinsic authority may be adduced. (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.

• "_comparatively_ probable, when after hearing all the reasons and all the authorities on the other side, the said opinion still remains _not unlikely_, which is all that we mean to say of an opinion here, when we call it _probable_."
• "ATP and its independent third party reservoir engineers use the term "probable" to describe volumes of reserves potentially recoverable through additional drilling or recovery techniques that, by their nature, are more speculative than estimates of proved reserves."
• "It's really early to speculate on the final cause and the federal investigators will spend weeks, months, who knows how long it will take before they'll come up with what they call probable cause."