adjective
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able to be understood; comprehensible
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philosophy
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capable of being apprehended by the mind or intellect alone
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(in metaphysical systems such as those of Plato or Kant) denoting that metaphysical realm which is accessible to the intellect as opposed to the world of mere phenomena accessible to the senses
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Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of intelligible
1350–1400; Middle English from Latin intelligibilis, equivalent to intellig- ( see intelligent) + -ibilis -ible
Explanation
Use the adjective intelligible to describe speech that is loud and clear, like the intelligible words of your principal which, thanks to a microphone, you were able to hear. When your goal is to make your writing intelligible to anyone who reads it, you choose clear, precise words and give details that tell more about what you mean. You might also include examples. Intelligible comes from the Latin word intelligibilis, "that can understand or that which can be understood." The earlier meaning of intelligible was "able to understand," which today is closer to the meaning of intelligent.
Vocabulary lists containing intelligible
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
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Robert M. Pirsig (1928-2017) Tribute List
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Watership Down
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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.
Intelligible and far from salacious, it manages to denounce pollution and corruption without invoking Mao Tse-tung.
From Time Magazine Archive
But man is also Noumenon, Thing-in-self, Intelligible Ens; and as such, being free from conditions of time and space, stands outside of the sequence of Nature.
From Moral Science; a Compendium of Ethics by Bain, Alexander
Intelligible was the half-frantic demand: "Who the devil are you?"
From The False Faces Further Adventures from the History of the Lone Wolf by Vance, Louis Joseph
And from this Notion of it, we may easily give a more Intelligible reason how the Air becomes so capable of Rarefaction and Condensation.
From Micrographia Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon by Hooke, Robert
"The idea of the good is the sun of the Intelligible World; it sheds on objects the light of truth, and gives to the soul that knows, the power of knowing."
From Christianity and Greek Philosophy or, the relation between spontaneous and reflective thought in Greece and the positive teaching of Christ and His Apostles by Cocker, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)
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.
