observability
|ob-ser-va-bil-i-ty|
🇺🇸
/əbˌzɝːvəˈbɪləti/
🇬🇧
/əbˌzɜːvəˈbɪlɪti/
able to be observed / inferred
Etymology
'observability' originates from Latin, specifically from 'observare' (via French/Latin derivatives) plus the English suffix '-ity' (from Latin '-itas'), where 'ob-' meant 'toward' and 'servare' meant 'to watch/keep'.
'observability' developed from Latin 'observare' -> Old French/Latin forms such as 'observer' -> Middle English 'observe' -> English adjective 'observable' + noun-forming suffix '-ity', producing 'observability' in modern English.
Initially related to the action 'to watch or attend to' (from Latin), it evolved into a noun meaning 'the quality of being observable'; in modern usage it also acquired technical senses in control theory and software (specialized inferability/monitoring meanings).
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
the quality or state of being able to be seen, noticed, measured, or recorded; the degree to which something can be observed.
The observability of the phenomenon improved once more sensitive instruments were used.
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Noun 2
in control theory (and related areas of engineering), a property of a system that determines whether its internal state can be inferred from its external outputs.
Observability is a key concept in control theory: without it you cannot reconstruct internal states from outputs.
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Noun 3
in software engineering and operations, the extent to which the internal state of a system can be understood from the telemetry it emits (logs, metrics, traces).
Improving observability with structured logs and distributed traces helped the team reduce mean time to resolution.
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Last updated: 2025/12/24 22:22