unintelligible
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- unintelligibility noun
- unintelligibleness noun
- unintelligibly adverb
Etymology
Origin of unintelligible
First recorded in 1610–20; un- 1 + intelligible
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 practice could be seen everywhere on the daily commute, adorned on walls, tunnels and metal shutters - always unintelligible, loud and colourful.
From BBC • Oct. 22, 2025
The final five minutes were almost unintelligible, marked almost entirely by crosstalk, as Baier refused to let Harris speak uninterrupted.
From Slate • Oct. 17, 2024
For example, during a rally in Montana on Friday, Trump appears to “glitch” and pause as he searches for words and then makes unintelligible noises and strange utterances.
From Salon • Aug. 13, 2024
After a corrupted chip rendered Voyager 1’s transmissions unintelligible in November 2023, engineers nursed the spacecraft back to health.
From Science Magazine • May 23, 2024
Words devolve into letters, letters into unintelligible bumps.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
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.
