Wiktionary

unintelligible

English

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Etymology

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From un- +‎ intelligible.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˌʌnɪnˈtɛlɪd͡ʒɪbəl/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

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unintelligible (comparative more unintelligible, superlative most unintelligible)

  1. 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.
    • 1953 August, “Station Announcements”, in Railway Magazine, page 506:
      Unintelligible announcements on station loudspeakers are both irritating and confusing.
    • 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]‎[2], Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page xxxiv:
      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.

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Translations

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See also

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