unreadable

Examples

• All

• His face was unreadable, but in the pale lamplight, it seemed young and uncertain.

  Fiction book (1993)

• Mandy watched them with an unreadable expression before plunging her hands into the soapy tub.

  Fiction book (1991)

• A moment later, the entire board breaks up into an unreadable mass of lines.

  Fiction book (1992)

• With a book which remains virtually unreadable!

  Isn't She Great (2000)

• Here comes the big, unreadable book that's supposed to explain everything?

  The Wicker Tree (2011)

• Most of the real fascist writers... Are unreadable.

  Sunshine (1999)

• The Bosnian turned his head slightly, but his expression was unreadable under the mask.

  Fiction book (1996)

• Mandy needed help when her new houseguest turned to her with an unreadable look on her face.

  Fiction book (1991)

• Some music scores are published using masters that are hand-copied, often resulting in unreadable notation and difficult page turns.

  Academic text (1993)

• The old manuscript was so faded that it was completely unreadable to the students.

Synonyms

U

unintelligible

vsunreadable

∞ 8.6

Not clear enough to understand

is narrower, talking about the visual inability to read letters and words

I

incomprehensible

vsunreadable

46 8.8

Difficult or impossible to understand

is focused specifically on visual reading difficulty rather than general understanding

I

impenetrable

vsunreadable

14 8.3

Very hard to understand

is more about physical visual reading problems rather than dense abstract difficulty

I

indecipherable

vsunreadable

8 8.8

Too hard to read or understand

is hard to read but sometimes parts can still be read

I

illegible

vsunreadable

8 5.5

Hard to read because the writing is messy or the print is faded

is a more general label for hard to read script or letters

U

undecipherable

vsunreadable

1 9.1

Very hard to read or understand

is about text or handwriting that is hard or impossible to read

B

barely legible

vsunreadable

1 7.1

Very hard to read so you can only understand a little

is used for text that is more often impossible to read than partly readable

C

crabbed

vsunreadable

• Archaic

9.3

Hard to read because the writing is small, messy, or strange

is similar but covers any text that is hard to read regardless of style

Antonyms

C

clear

∞ 1.0

Easy to understand and not confusing

L

legible

11 3.1

Clear enough to read easily, like handwriting or printed text

How Readable

clear

∞ 1.0

readable

26 2.0

hard to follow

9 6.4

unreadable

14 4.1

illegible

8 5.5

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology