predicables also praedicabilia, sometimes called the quinque voces (five words), in medieval philosophy, genus, species, difference, proprium, and accident, the five main ways general predicates can be predicated. The list comes from Porphyry’s Isagoge. It was debated whether it applies to linguistic predicates only or also to extralinguistic universals. Things that have accidents can exist without them; other predicables belong necessarily to whatever has them. (The Aristotelian/Porphyrian notion of ‘inseparable accident’ blurs this picture.) Genus and species are natural kinds; other predicables are not. A natural kind that is not a narrowest natural kind is a genus; one that is not a broadest natural kind is a species. (Some genera are also species.) A proprium is not a species, but is coextensive with one. A difference belongs necessarily to whatever has it, but is neither a natural kind nor coextensive with one. See also ACCIDENT , DEFINITION , PRAEDICA – MENTA , PROPRIU. P.V.S.