Unintelligible

Definition: Unintelligible

Unintelligible

Adjective

1. Poorly articulated or enunciated, or drowned by noise; "unintelligible speech".

2. Not clearly understood or expressed.

Date "unintelligible" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1588. (references)

Synonym: Unintelligible

Synonym: opaque (adj). (additional references)

Antonym: intelligible (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Concealment	Undisclosed; untold; covert; (latent); untraceable; mysterious; (unintelligible).
Latency Implication	Unapparent, unknown, unseen; in the background; invisible; indiscoverable, dark; impenetrable; (unintelligible); unspied, unsuspected.
Misteaching	Render unintelligible; bewilder; (uncertainty); mystify; (conceal); unteach.
Unintelligibility	Adjective: unintelligible, unaccountable, undecipherable, undiscoverable, unknowable, unfathomable; incognizable, inexplicable, inscrutable; inapprehensible, incomprehensible; insolvable, insoluble; impenetrable.
	Verb: be unintelligible; Adjective: require explanation; have a doubtful meaning, pass comprehension.
	Render unintelligible; Adjective: conceal; darken; confuse; (derange); perplex; (bewilder)
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Unintelligible

English words defined with "unintelligible": Chinese ♦ double talk ♦ gibber, gibberish ♦ Inapprehensible, incoherence, incoherency ♦ noise ♦ scramble, scrambler ♦ unintelligibility, unintelligibly, ununderstandably. (references)

Specialty definitions using "unintelligible": BABBLE ♦ ciphertext, cyphertext ♦ inverted crosstalk ♦ pay television, pay-TV, Proof ♦ soul, subscription television ♦ to encode ♦ unintelligible crosstalk, unintelligible crosstalk component. (references)

Etymologies containing "unintelligible": Slav. (references)

Author	Quotation
Henry Brooks Adams	Unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.
John Ruskin	The higher a man stands, the more the word ''vulgar'' becomes unintelligible to him.
William Wordsworth	That blessed mood in which the burthen of the mystery, in which the heavy and the weary weight of all this unintelligible world is lightened.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	It is the unintelligible in the dark.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Equatorial Guinea	Those in the northern part of Rio Muni speak Fang-Ntumu, while those in the south speak Fang-Okah; the two dialects are mutually unintelligible. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	SOUL, n. A spiritual entity concerning which there hath been brave disputation. Plato held that those souls which in a previous state of existence (antedating Athens) had obtained the clearest glimpses of eternal truth entered into the bodies of persons who became philosophers. Plato himself was a philosopher. The souls that had least contemplated divine truth animated the bodies of usurpers and despots. Dionysius I, who had threatened to decapitate the broad- browed philosopher, was a usurper and a despot. Plato, doubtless, was not the first to construct a system of philosophy that could be quoted against his enemies; certainly he was not the last. "Concerning the nature of the soul," saith the renowned author of Diversiones Sanctorum, "there hath been hardly more argument than that of its place in the body. Mine own belief is that the soul hath her seat in the abdomen -- in which faith we may discern and interpret a truth hitherto unintelligible, namely that the glutton is of all men most devout. He is said in the Scripture to 'make a god of his belly' -- why, then, should he not be pious, having ever his Deity with him to freshen his faith? Who so well as he can know the might and majesty that he shrines? Truly and soberly, the soul and the stomach are one Divine Entity; and such was the belief of Promasius, who nevertheless erred in denying it immortality. He had observed that its visible and material substance failed and decayed with the rest of the body after death, but of its immaterial essence he knew nothing. This is what we call the Appetite, and it survives the wreck and reek of mortality, to be rewarded or punished in another world, according to what it hath demanded in the flesh. The Appetite whose coarse clamoring was for the unwholesome viands of the general market and the public refectory shall be cast into eternal famine, whilst that which firmly through civilly insisted on ortolans, caviare, terrapin, anchovies, pates de foie gras and all such Christian comestibles shall flesh its spiritual tooth in the souls of them forever and ever, and wreak its divine thirst upon the immortal parts of the rarest and richest wines ever quaffed here below. Such is my religious faith, though I grieve to confess that neither His Holiness the Pope nor His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury (whom I equally and profoundly revere) will assent to its dissemination."
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Benjamin Harrison	1889-1893	Our existing laws have been in their administration an unimpressive and often an unintelligible form.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Unintelligible" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Unintelligible" is used about 137 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	137	27,138

Expressions using "unintelligible": render unintelligible ♦ unintelligible crosstalk ♦ unintelligible crosstalk component. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language		Translations for "unintelligible"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		i pakuptueshëm (abstruse, elusive, fathomless, illegible, impalpable, impenetrable, inapprehensible, incomprehensible, intangible, obscure, thick, unattainable, unclear, unknowable, unmeaning, unsearchable). (various references)

Arabic		‏مبهم (abstruse, ambiguous, cryptic, dark, dim, enigmatic, equivocal, hazy, impenetrable, incomprehensible, inscrutable, misty, mysterious, mystic, obscure, recondite, unclear, unfathomable, vague), ‏لا يمكن فهمه, ‏غامض (abstruse, ambiguous, cloudy, deep, dim, double faced, dreamy, enigmatic, evasive, fuzzy, grave, hazy, impenetrable, incomprehensible, indecisive, indefinite, indeterminate, indistinct, indistinguishable, inscrutable, intangible, lax, magic, magical, misty, mysterious, mystic, nebulous, obscure, occult, opaque, puzzling, recondite, secret, shady, sketchy, slippery, sloppy, uncertain, vague, woolly). (various references)

Bulgarian		неразбран (crabbed, unreadable, wrongheaded), неразбираем (abstruse, fathomless, impenetrable, inapprehensible, incomprehensible, ineligible, inscrutable, opaque, profound). (various references)

Chinese		不知所云 (be unintelligible, is driving at, not know what sb). (various references)

Czech		nesrozumitelný (abstruse, incomprehensible). (various references)

Danish		uforstaaelig krydstalekomponent (unintelligible crosstalk component), uforståelig krydstale (inverted crosstalk, unintelligible crosstalk). (various references)

Dutch		ondoorgrondelĳk, ondoorgrondelýk (abysmal, incomprehensible, inconceivable), onbegrĳpelĳk, onbegrýpelýk (incomprehensible, inconceivable). (various references)

Esperanto		nekomprenebla (inconceivable). (various references)

Faeroese		ófatiligur (incomprehensible, inconceivable). (various references)

Farsi		پیچیده (Abstruse, Crackly, Crump, Indirect, Intricate, Obscurant, Recondite, Revolute), غیرمفهوم , غیرصریح (Imprecise, Noncommittal), غامض (Abstruse, Knotty, Problematic). (various references)

Finnish		tolkuton (confused, senseless), mahdoton ymmärtää, käsittämätön (incomprehensible, inconceivable). (various references)

French		inintelligible. (various references)

German		unverständlich (inaudible, inaudibly, incomprehensible, incomprehensibly, unintelligibly). (various references)

Greek		ακατάληπτοσ (inconceivable). (various references)

Hungarian		értelmetlen (beyond reason, devoid of sense, fatuous, it doesn't mean a thing, it's no use, meaningless, mindless, pointless, rambling, unmeaning, unreasoned, without rhyme or reason). (various references)

Italian		inintelligibile, incomprensibile (fathomless, inapprehensible, incomprehensible, inconceivable, puzzling). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		解り難い (hard to understand, incomprehensible), 解り悪い (hard to understand, incomprehensible), 分かり難い (hard to understand, incomprehensible), 分かり悪い (hard to understand, incomprehensible), 分かりにくい (hard to understand, incomprehensible), 判り難い (hard to understand, incomprehensible). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		わかりにくい (hard to understand, incomprehensible). (various references)

Papiamen		inkomprendibel (incomprehensible, inconceivable). (various references)

Pig Latin		intelligibleunay

Portuguese		ininteligível (unmeaning). (various references)

Romanian		ininteligibil (incomprehensible, unintelligibly), enigmatic (ambiguous, enigmatic, enigmatical, inscrutable, obscure, riddling). (various references)

Russian		неразборчивый (cramped, illegible, indecipherable, indiscriminate, niggling, undecipherable, undiscriminating, unreadable, unscrupulous). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		neinteligentan (unapprehensive, unintelligent). (various references)

Spanish		ininteligible, incomprensible (inapprehensible, incomprehensible). (various references)

Swedish		obegriplig (impenetrable, inapprehensible, incomprehensible, inconceivable). (various references)

Turkish		anlaşılmaz (bottomless, clear as mud, complicated, deep, delphic, elusive, elusory, fathomless, impenetrable, inapprehensible, inarticulate, incomprehensible, inconceivable, inexplicable, inscrutable, intangible, obscure, occult, opaque, oracular, perplexed, puzzling, recondite, sphinxlike, unaccountable, uncanny, vague, weird). (various references)

Vietnamese		khó hiểu (deep, delphian, delphic, enigmatic, enigmatical, incomprehensible, intricate, mysterious, oracular, perplexed, recondite, riddling, weird), không thể hiểu được (incognizable, inconceivable). (various references)

Welsh		annealladwy. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "unintelligible": unintelligibleness, unintelligiblenesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Unintelligible" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: unintelligable, unintelligeable, unintelliigible. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "unintelligible" (pronounced u'ni'nte"lujubul)
11	-i' n t e" l u j u b u l	intelligible.
8	-e" l u j u b u l	eligible.
7	-l u j u b u l	knowledgeable, negligible.
6	-u j u b u l	incorrigible.
5	-j u b u l	changeable, chargeable, exchangeable, fungible, illegible, ineligible, intangible, interchangeable, manageable, rechargeable, salvageable, tangible, unmanageable.
4	-u b u l	abominable, acceptable, accessible, accountable, achievable, actionable, adaptable, addressable, adjustable, admirable, admissible, adoptable, adorable, advisable, affable, affordable, agreeable, allowable, amenable, amendable, amiable, amicable, analyzable, answerable, appealable, applicable, appreciable, approachable, approvable, arable, arguable, attainable, attributable, audible, available, avoidable, bankable, bearable, believable, billable, biodegradable, breakable, buildable, burnable, callable, cannibal, capable, charitable, classifiable, collapsible, collectible, Combinable, comfortable, commendable, communicable, comparable, compatible, compensable, comprehensible, conceivable, confirmable, considerable, constable, consumable, contemptible, contestable, controllable, convertible, copyrightable, countable, credible, creditable, crucible, culpable, curable, debatable, deductible, defensible, definable, degradable, delectable, deliverable, demonstrable, dependable, deplorable, deployable, depreciable, describable, desirable, despicable, detachable, detectable, determinable, developable, digestible, disagreeable, discernible, discountable, discoverable, dishonorable, dispensable, disposable, disreputable, distinguishable, divisible, doable, drinkable, drivable, durable, eatable, edible, electable, Embraceable, employable, enforceable, enjoyable, enviable, equable, equitable, erasable, erodible, estimable, excitable, excludable, excusable, execrable, exercisable, expandable, expendable, explainable, exportable, extendable, extendible, fallible, fashionable, fathomable, favorable, feasible, fissionable, fixable, flammable, flexible, forcible, foreseeable, forfeitable, forgettable, forgivable, formidable, fusible, gullible, habitable, harvestable, heritable, hon, honorable, horrible, hospitable, identifiable, imaginable, imitable, immiscible, immovable, immutable, impassable, impeachable, impeccable, impenetrable, imperceptible, impermissible, implacable, implantable, implausible, imponderable, impossible, impracticable, impregnable, impressionable, improbable, inaccessible, inadmissible, inadvisable, inalienable, inapplicable, inaudible, incalculable, incapable, incomparable, incompatible, incomprehensible, incompressible, inconceivable, incontrovertible, incredible, incurable, indefatigable, indefensible, indefinable, indelible, indescribable, indestructible, indispensable, indisputable, indistinguishable, indivisible, indomitable, inedible, ineffable, inequitable, inescapable, inevitable, inexcusable, inexhaustible, inexorable, inexplicable, infallible, infeasible, inflammable, inflatable, inflexible, inheritable, inhospitable, inimitable, injectable, innumerable, inoperable, insatiable, inscrutable, inseparable, insoluble, insufferable, insupportable, insurmountable, interminable, interruptible, intolerable, intractable, invaluable, investable, invincible, inviolable, invisible, invulnerable, irascible, irreconcilable, irrefutable, irremediable, irreparable, irreplaceable, irrepressible, irresistible, irresponsible, irreversible, irrevocable, irritable, issuable, justifiable, lamentable, laudable, laughable, leasable, legible, liable, likable, likeable, livable, lovable, malleable, mandible, maneuverable, marketable, measurable, memorable, microwavable, miscible, miserable, moldable, movable, navigable, negotiable, noncallable, nonconvertible, nondeductible, nondurable, nonrefundable, nonrenewable, nontaxable, nontransferable, notable, noticeable, objectionable, observable, obtainable, operable, ostensible, palatable, palpable, parable, passable, patentable, payable, peaceable, perceptible, perishable, permeable, permissible, personable, persuadable, pitiable, plausible, pleasurable, pliable, portable, possible, potable, practicable, predictable, preferable, presentable, preventable, printable, probable, profitable, programmable, prosecutable, provable, punishable, questionable, quotable, reachable, readable, realizable, reasonable, receivable, recognizable, recordable, recoverable, recyclable, redeemable, redoubtable, reducible, refundable, regrettable, reliable, remarkable, removable, renewable, rentable, repairable, repayable, repeatable, replaceable, reportable, reprehensible, reputable, resealable, resettable, respectable, responsible, retractable, returnable, reusable, reversible, revocable, ridable, salable, saleable, seasonable, sensible, serviceable, sizable, sizeable, sociable, soluble, solvable, spendable, submersible, suggestible, suitable, supportable, survivable, susceptible, sustainable, syllable, talkable, taxable, teachable, tenable, terrible, tolerable, traceable, tractable, tradable, tradeable, trainable, transferable, transferrable, transmittable, transportable, treatable, tunable, typeable, unacceptable, unaccountable, unaffordable, unalienable, unalterable, unanswerable, unassailable, unattainable, unavailable, unavoidable, unbearable, unbeatable, unbelievable, unbuildable, uncollectible, uncomfortable, unconscionable, uncontrollable, undeniable, understandable, undesirable, undetectable, unelectable, unemployable, unenforceable, unenviable, unexplainable, unfashionable, unfathomable, unfavorable, unfeasible, unflappable, unforeseeable, unforgettable, unforgivable, ungovernable, unimaginable, unimpeachable, uninhabitable, uninsurable, unjustifiable, unknowable, unlivable, unmentionable, unmistakable, unobtainable, unpalatable, unpredictable, unprintable, unprofitable, unquestionable, unreachable, unreadable, unreasonable, unrecognizable, unreliable, unremarkable, unsalable, unshakable, unsinkable, unsolvable, unspeakable, unstoppable, unsuitable, unsupportable, unsustainable, untenable, unthinkable, untouchable, untraceable, unusable, unverifiable, unwinnable, unworkable, usable, variable, vegetable, venerable, verifiable, veritable, viable, visible, voluble, vulnerable, washable, wearable, winnable, workable.
3	-b u l	able, amble, assemble, babble, Babel, bauble, bible, bramble, bubble, Bumble, cable, cobble, coble, corbel, crumble, cymbal, dabble, Dibble, disable, disassemble, dissemble, double, Drabble, dribble, enable, enfeeble, ennoble, ensemble, fable, feeble, foible, fumble, gable, gamble, Garble, global, gobble, Gribble, grumble, hardscrabble, herbal, hobble, humble, ignoble, immeasurable, immobile, intertribal, jumble, kibble, label, libel, marble, mislabel, mobile, mumble, nibble, nimble, noble, nonverbal, pebble, preamble, psychobabble, quibble, rabble, ramble, reassemble, rebel, redouble, relabel, resemble, Roble, rouble, roundtable, rubble, Ruble, rumble, sable, Scrabble, scramble, scribble, shamble, Sibyl, squabble, Stabile, stable, stubble, stumble, symbol, table, thimble, timetable, treble, tremble, tribal, trouble, tubal, tumble, turntable, umbel, unable, unscramble, unserviceable, unstable, valuable, verbal, wamble, wobble.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "b-e-e-g-i-i-i-l-l-l-n-n-t-u"
	-2 letters: intelligible.
	-3 letters: bulletining.
	-4 letters: ineligible.
	-5 letters: beelining, billeting, bulleting, ebullient, ignitible, illegible, libelling, unbelting.
	Words containing the letters "b-e-e-g-i-i-i-l-l-l-n-n-t-u"
	+4 letters: unintelligibleness.
	+5 letters: unintelligibilities.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.