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Synonyms

unreadable

American  
[uhn-ree-duh-buhl] / ʌnˈri də bəl /

adjective

  1. not readable; undecipherable; scribbled.

    His scrawl was almost unreadable.

  2. not interesting to read; dull; tedious; an unreadable treatise.

  3. extraordinarily difficult to read or comprehend; obscure; incomprehensible.

    an unreadable dream; an unreadable expression.


unreadable British  
/ ʌnˈriːdəbəl /

adjective

  1. illegible; undecipherable

  2. difficult or tedious to read

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of unreadable

First recorded in 1795–1805; un- 1 + readable

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.

See Examples For:

The agendas also contained a distorted periodic table, unreadable phases of the moon and other garbled educational material that parents suspect may have been created using artificial intelligence.

From Salon Aug. 15, 2026

It’s an eye-crossing quantity of goodwill, so insipid and repetitive as to become unreadable.

From The Wall Street Journal May 29, 2026

You shouldn't have to worry about images becoming unreadable for a very long time - thanks to "robust" image file formats like jpeg, according to Prof Winters.

From BBC Oct. 25, 2025

But I don’t know that the justices can manage their public image and reputation by continuing to be incomprehensible, unreadable, or jurisdictional.

From Slate Jun. 2, 2025

Both of them looked at him, but their expressions were unreadable.

From "The Kill Order (Maze Runner, Book Four; Origin)" by James Dashner

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