unreadable

[ uhn-ree-duh-buhl ]

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

/ ʌnˈriːdəbəl /

adjective

1. illegible; undecipherable
2. difficult or tedious to read

Derived Forms

• unˈreadably, adverb
• unˌreadaˈbility, noun

Other Words From

• un·reada·bili·ty un·reada·ble·ness noun
• un·reada·bly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of unreadable¹

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

Example Sentences

Digital storage systems can become unreadable in as little as three to five years.

From MIT Technology Review

Cryptographic algorithms turn readable data into a secret, unreadable form so it can be safely shared on the open internet.

From MIT Technology Review

Digital media ages badly—technology leaping ahead so quickly that our pixelated past will be rendered unreadable before we get a chance to transfer it to a new system.

From Time

The Braille on the columns is completely unreadable because the dots are indented.

From Washington Post

Some researchers argue this makes the knowledge and discoveries discussed in the articles unreadable to both scientists and lay people alike.

From Popular-Science

Conversely, terrible writing on page one (the case with several exciting mega-bestsellers) renders something unreadable for me.

From The Daily Beast

Hamilton would soak the cardboard packaging of the EPO until the label was unreadable.

From The Daily Beast

The handwriting on the short note is a combination of odd angled block letters and an unreadable signature.

From The Daily Beast

Their books tried hard to be edgy and hipper-than-thou, but ended up being an unreadable mess instead.

From The Daily Beast

I thought about that quip later in the interview when Doyle offered the opinion that James Joyce was nearly unreadable.

From The Daily Beast

Graduates that have been in use a long time, especially for measuring alkalies, become unreadable.

From Project Gutenberg

Here two tremendous patches of ink left some words that followed quite unreadable.

From Project Gutenberg

On the other hand, Cabbalistic works become almost unreadable on account of the prevalence of Semitic over German words.

From Project Gutenberg

Most of the book is altogether unreadable from any human point of view, as I feel only too well in my deluge of proofs.

From Project Gutenberg

It is unreadable, and to quote his own sensible words, ‘It is useless to criticise what nobody reads.’

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• incomprehensible
• indecipherable