INTELLIGIBLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does intelligible mean? 

• INTELLIGIBLE (adjective)
  The adjective INTELLIGIBLE has 2 senses:

1. capable of being apprehended or understood

2. well articulated or enunciated, and loud enough to be heard distinctly

  Familiarity information: INTELLIGIBLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INTELLIGIBLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Capable of being apprehended or understood

Synonyms:

apprehensible; graspable; intelligible; perceivable; understandable

Similar:

comprehendible; comprehensible (capable of being comprehended or understood)

Derivation:

intelligibility (the quality of language that is comprehensible)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Well articulated or enunciated, and loud enough to be heard distinctly

Context example:

intelligible pronunciation

Also:

comprehendible; comprehensible (capable of being comprehended or understood)

Antonym:

unintelligible (poorly articulated or enunciated, or drowned by noise)

Derivation:

intelligibility (the quality of language that is comprehensible)

 Context examples 

She heard Patty announcing it; but no such bustle succeeded as poor Miss Bates had before made so happily intelligible.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

It is big, and it is true, though the chance is large that I have failed to make it intelligible.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He gave her a very plain, intelligible account of the whole; a narration in which she saw a great deal of most characteristic proceeding.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Henry was most happy to make it more intelligible, by beginning at an earlier stage, and explaining very particularly what he had done.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And in a low voice she read something, of which not one word was intelligible to me; for it was in an unknown tongue—neither French nor Latin.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

So did I. That should mean T. AT—that’s intelligible enough.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her mother would talk of her views in the same intelligible tone.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

In all these cases the children were too young to give any properly intelligible account of themselves, but the consensus of their excuses is that they had been with a "bloofer lady."

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And I observe, when any Yahoo comes from London out of curiosity to visit me at my house, we neither of us are able to deliver our conceptions in a manner intelligible to the other.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

She began to think that he must be in liquor;—the strangeness of such a visit, and of such manners, seemed no otherwise intelligible; and with this impression she immediately rose, saying, Mr. Willoughby, I advise you at present to return to Combe—I am not at leisure to remain with you longer.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)