comprehensible
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of comprehensible
From the Latin word comprehēnsibilis, dating back to 1520–30. See comprehension, -ible
Explanation
Anything comprehensible is clear and intelligible — you can understand it. On the first day of school, if nothing your teacher says is comprehensible, you'll know you're in the wrong French class! When you comprehend something, you understand it, so when things are comprehensible, they're clear enough that they can be understood. Go down the hall to the French I classroom, and the teacher's slow speech and clear explanations will make the language comprehensible. If you write your homework out carefully and neatly, it will be comprehensible enough for your teacher to read it.
Vocabulary lists containing comprehensible
Vocabulary from Readings 2, Unit 5
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Obvious
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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.
The problem is that planning documents are barely comprehensible in English.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2026
"What will never be comprehensible, justified or admitted is violence," he said.
From Barron's • Mar. 16, 2026
Art—crude or cruel, adolescent or arch—is supposed to make comprehensible the incomprehensible.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 25, 2026
His declining ability to generate a comprehensible sentence, much less string together a coherent argument, will raise serious concerns.
From Salon • Oct. 22, 2024
In the agony of trying to answer their barely comprehensible questions, I jabbed my hands here and there, forming words with my fingers because the words refused to leave my mouth.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
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.
