If something can be tightened then it has the property of being tightenable. However as far as I can find; "tightenable" is not a real word. What word could I use, or what is the shortest phrase I could use otherwise?
In colloquial everyday American English, we coin words all the time that are not in the dictionary.
I can assure you that if you speak or write the word "tightenable," absolutely everyone who hears it or sees it will understand what you mean. Furthermore, I'm sure that only a very small percentage of those people are going to stop and say (to themselves, if not to you), "Hey, that's not a real word!"
I'm the Linguistics Moderator, which means that I have at least a modest set of credentials, and even I had to look it up. But if you used it in a sentence (written or spoken)outside of this website, I would not have launched into a discourse about making up words. We all do it.
I don't know if this is common in the other Anglophone countries. The Aussies are even more informal than us Americans, so I'd expect them to do it. The Brits? They might do it in very informal settings, but probably not in writing.
Also, I don't necessarily mean the opposite of loose.
Of course. Just because something is loose, that doesn't automatically imply that it can be tightened or retightened. The reason that the gadget in question is loose may be that it's worn out and some of the pieces simply won't turn anymore!
