Unintelligible Meaning
/ˌʌnɪnˈtɛlɪd͡ʒɪbəl/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjNot intelligible; unable to be understood.
Sentence Examples
Lojban and its predecessor Loglan are mutually unintelligible.
It's unintelligible, I know.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The recording was so muffled and ____ that no one could understand a word.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The recording was poor and the words were almost ____, making it very difficult to understand the message today.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English intelligible English unintelligible From un- + intelligible.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"They have ſwallowed and digeſted all the Fathers, the Codes, Provincials, Decretals, Pandects, Councils, Canons ; are Maſters of all the Schoolmen, not to fill their Heads and ſtuff their Writings with Quiddities and Quoddities, and far-fetched unintelligible Diſtinctions, but to be able to reaſon cloſely, to argue ſolidly, to rebuke, to confute, to reply, to rejoind, to ſyllogize, to criticize, to apologize, to advertize, to ſermonize, to decypherize, to――"
— 1744, A Dialogue Between the Rev. Mr. Jenkin Evans and Mr. Peter Dobson, concerning Bishops., London: M. Cooper, at the Globe in Pater-noſter-row, →OCLC, page 37:
"The curious feature of the art was that "horse-whisperers" actually talked to the animal, usually from mouth to ear, in an unintelligible tongue; which, however, the horses appeared to understand."
— 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 216:
"Unintelligible announcements on station loudspeakers are both irritating and confusing."
— 1953 August, “Station Announcements”, in Railway Magazine, page 506:
"Lately, a study was made of oracle-bone inscriptions excavated in 1899 in the T'ang-yin county, 湯陰縣, of Honan Province and amounting to several thousand pieces, having unintelligible inscriptions whose dates nobody could determine."
— 1959, Liang Ch’i-ch’ao, translated by Immanuel C. Y. Hsü, Intellectual Trends in the Ch’ing Period [清代學術概論], Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page xxxiv:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The recording was so muffled and ____ that no one could understand a word.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The recording was poor and the words were almost ____, making it very difficult to understand the message today.