adjective
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(of handwriting, etc) able to be read or deciphered; legible
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(of style of writing) interesting, easy, or pleasant to read
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of readable
Explanation
Readable things can be understood, interpreted, or read fairly easily. A readable restaurant menu has print that's large and clear enough for diners to make it out. Whether or not something's readable is particularly important when you're conveying emergency instructions (like a sign showing how to help someone who's choking) or advertising something (customers can't find your store if they can't read the address in your advertisement). Another way to define readable is "fun and easy to read." Your favorite books, for example, might be fast-paced, readable mysteries.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Readable as it is, “The Jeweler’s Eye” could have used some of the Buckley-Mailer debates and TV confrontations.
From New York Times • Oct. 21, 2021
The Scrolls Vesuvius Torched Over 1,000 Years Ago Are Readable Again thanks to infrared imaging and micro-CT imaging technique that enabled researchers to “virtually unroll the scroll.”
From Scientific American • Dec. 22, 2013
Readable and authoritative surveys of U. S. industries, reprinted from FORTUNE.
From Time Magazine Archive
Readable and thoroughly documented was Herbert Feis's The Spanish Story, a former State Department man's expert statement of General Franco's devious wartime role.
From Time Magazine Archive
And I have been most struck with Edgar Poe, who has been republished, prose and poetry, in a shilling volume called "Readable Books."
From Yesterdays with Authors by Fields, James T.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
