Alienable means transferable.
An interest in property is alienable if it may be conveyed by one party to another. In general, all private property is alienable unless some contractual, common law, or statutory restriction on it states otherwise.
The classical restraint on alienability was the fee tail, which required its owner to pass the property (almost always land) to their heirs. That said, due to the desire for more alienability in private property, fee tails were abolished or heavily restricted in most states. For example, California law states that any attempt to create a fee tail instead creates a fee simple.
Another common restriction on alienability occurs with appurtenant easements. Appurtenant easements can only be transferred if they’re transferred in combination with an underlying area of land.
A more familiar restraint is a restraint on the trade of human organs. The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 outlawed the sale and transfer of organs in any scenario other than organ donation thereby restricting the alienability of human organs.
[Last updated in June of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]
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