intelligibility
Americannoun
-
the quality or condition of being intelligible; capability of being understood.
-
something intelligible.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of intelligibility
First recorded in 1600–10; intelligible + -ity
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.
Much of it was lost to the audience, since reverberant amplification gave heroic heft to Blanchett’s voice at the cost of intelligibility.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
Indeed, Christie's own residual longing for intelligibility ended up mucking up his own otherwise sick burn of Ramaswamy.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2023
In that era, the idea of opera as drama was taken seriously, and intelligibility was essential.
From New York Times ● Feb. 25, 2022
But like most palindromes, Tenet prizes reversibility over intelligibility: The point of “Able was I ere I saw Elba” is that it reads the same both ways, not that it teaches you anything.
From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2020
They retain, however, the condition of intelligibility; the joke would lose all its effect if the allusion could not be traced back to the actual without any effort whatsoever.
From A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Freud, Sigmund
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.
