tractable

/ˈtræktəbəl/

Other forms: tractably

If your little brother quietly obeys your instructions and waits for you at the food court while you and your friends wander around the mall, he's probably a tractable child, meaning he's obedient, flexible, and responds well to directions.

Note the similarity between tractable and tractor. Both come from the Latin word tractare, which originally meant "to drag about." You can think of a tractable person as someone who can be dragged about easily, like a plow being dragged by a tractor.

Definitions of tractable

1. adjective

   easily managed (controlled or taught or molded)
   “tractable young minds”

   synonyms: manipulable

   compliant

   disposed or willing to comply

   manageable

   capable of being managed or controlled

   obedient

   dutifully complying with the commands or instructions of those in authority

   docile

   willing to be taught or led or supervised or directed

   tame, tamed

   brought from wildness into a domesticated state

   ductile, malleable

   easily influenced

   docile, educable, teachable

   ready and willing to be taught

   tamable, tameable

   capable of being tamed

   antonyms:

   intractable

   not tractable; difficult to manage or mold

   defiant, noncompliant

   boldly resisting authority or an opposing force

   difficult, unbiddable, unmanageable

   hard to control

   disobedient

   not obeying or complying with commands of those in authority

   obstinate, stubborn, unregenerate

   refusing to change one's mind or ways; difficult to convince

   untamed, wild

   wild, free, and not controlled or touched by humans

   balking, balky

   stopping short and refusing to go on

   refractory, stubborn

   not responding to treatment

   uncontrollable, unmanageable

   difficult to solve or alleviate

   unmalleable

   difficult or impossible to shape or work
2. adjective

   readily reacting to suggestions and influences
   synonyms: amenable

   susceptible

   (often followed by 'of' or 'to') yielding readily to or capable of undergoing a process