unintelligible
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
un- + intelligible.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
unintelligible (comparative more unintelligible, superlative most unintelligible)
- Not intelligible; unable to be understood.
- 1697, John Locke, Letter to the Bishop of Worcester (second reply):
- And indeed, my lord, there are so many passages in your writing in this controversy with me, which for their construction, as well as otherwise, are so unintelligible to me, that if I should be so unmannerly as to measure your understanding by mine, I should not know what to think of them.
- 1744, A Dialogue Between the Rev. Mr. Jenkin Evans and Mr. Peter Dobson, concerning Bishops.[1], London: M. Cooper, at the Globe in Pater-noſter-row, →OCLC, page 37:
- 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――
- 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 216:
- 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.
- 1697, John Locke, Letter to the Bishop of Worcester (second reply):
Synonyms[edit]
- inscrutable, unexplainable; See also Thesaurus:incomprehensible
Antonyms[edit]
- intelligible; See also Thesaurus:comprehensible
Translations[edit]
not intelligible
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