unintelligible

Examples

• All

• The conversation on that tape is unintelligible.

  Wild Things (1998)

• The warnings are illegible and unintelligible to a very large proportion of society.

• I sometimes only wanted to hear human voices, even though they were unintelligible to me.

  Fiction book (1996)

• And she found the experience somewhere between unintelligible and excruciating.

• It's just that I feel so unintelligible reading this book, like I feel like I don't get it at all.

  Destiny Sidwell

• Sunny was at an age where one mostly speaks in a series of unintelligible shrieks.

  Fiction book (1999)

• The man got out, opened the hatch, growled something unintelligible, and then handed me my bag.

  Academic text (2017)

• Proust's practice is the accommodation of the involuntary and unintelligible in the pursuit of truth.

  Academic text (1999)

• The gunfire upstairs has subsided and has been replaced by unintelligible police voices.

  Fiction book (1994)

• Hudson explained that he thought Burt's old data sheets were probably unintelligible to anyone but Burt himself.

  Academic text (1991)

Synonyms

I

incomprehensible

vsunintelligible

46 8.8

Difficult or impossible to understand

is a slightly milder term, meaning very difficult rather than extreme

U

unfathomable

vsunintelligible

23 8.6

Very hard to understand or measure how deep something is

is broader, signaling difficulty rather than depth or great complexity

U

unexplainable

vsunintelligible

19 7.0

Something people cannot understand or find a clear reason for

is the general label for being very hard or impossible to understand

U

unknowable

vsunintelligible

19 7.4

Something you cannot find out or understand

emphasizes difficulty of understanding rather than absolute inability to know

U

unreadable

vsunintelligible

14 4.1

Hard or impossible to read

is broader and includes spoken or abstract forms, not only writing

I

impenetrable

vsunintelligible

14 8.3

Very hard to understand

is a neutral way to state something is very difficult or impossible to understand

O

opaque

vsunintelligible

14 8.0

Hard to understand or follow

is broader, applying to any thing that is impossible or very hard to understand

I

inscrutable

vsunintelligible

12 8.9

Hard to understand because it shows no clear meaning or feeling

is the plain description of being very hard or impossible to understand

H

hard to follow

vsunintelligible

9 6.4

Difficult to understand

is stronger, often meaning impossible or very hard rather than just difficult

I

indecipherable

vsunintelligible

8 8.8

Too hard to read or understand

is more general, covering many kinds of hard to understand things

U

undecipherable

vsunintelligible

1 9.1

Very hard to read or understand

applies more widely, beyond written forms, to any hard to understand case

U

ungraspable

vsunintelligible

1 8.6

Difficult to understand even after thinking about it

is a more neutral way to say very hard or impossible to understand

U

uninterpretable

vsunintelligible

1 8.2

Not possible to understand or explain

is the broader term for things that are very hard to understand

U

unsearchable

vsunintelligible

1 7.6

Hard to know what someone thinks or feels

is the general word for anything impossible or very difficult to understand

U

uncomprehensible

vsunintelligible

• Informal

9.9

Very hard to understand

is the standard neutral term rather than a nonstandard variant

I

inapprehensible

vsunintelligible

9.9

Hard to understand or explain

is the common neutral word for the same difficulty, not rare form

I

incognoscible

vsunintelligible

• Archaic

9.9

Not possible for people to know or understand

is the everyday term for things very hard or impossible to understand

U

unscannable

vsunintelligible

8.4

Difficult to read from a person's face or behavior

is more general, applying to anything impossible or very difficult to understand

Antonyms

C

clear

∞ 1.0

Easy to understand and not confusing

I

intelligible

8 4.4

Easy to hear and understand

How Understandable

clear

∞ 1.0

understandable

171 1.6

unclear

207 3.9

unintelligible

∞ 8.6

incomprehensible

46 8.8

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology