intelligible

See also: intel·ligible

English

Etymology

From Middle French intelligible, from Old French, from Latin intelligibilis.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɛləd͡ʒəbəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlədʒəbəl

Adjective

intelligible (comparative more intelligible, superlative most intelligible)

1. Capable of being understood; clear to the mind.

   Italian and Spanish are partially mutually intelligible languages.

   • 1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 80:

     Thus the murderer is thought to have poisoned the sources of life and thereby jeopardized the supply of food for himself, and perhaps for others. On this view it is intelligible that a homicide should be shunned and banished the country, to which his presence is a continual menace.

   • 2018 February 15, Laura Ingraham, The Ingraham Angle, via FOX News:

     NBA superstar LeBron James is talking politics again, and this time it’s R-rated. Here’s his barely intelligible, not to mention ungrammatical take on President Trump, in a new ESPN podcast.

Synonyms

• understandable; See also Thesaurus:comprehensible

Antonyms

• unintelligible; See also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

Derived terms

• intelligibility
• intelligibleness
• intelligibly
• interintelligible
• mutually intelligible
• unintelligible

Translations

capable of being understood

• Arabic: بائِن (bāʔin), بَيّن (ar), مُبِين (mubīn), مُتّضِح, مُتَجَلٍ (mutajalin), وَضّاح (waḍḍāḥ)
• Bulgarian: разбираем (bg) (razbiraem), понятен (bg) (ponjaten)
• Catalan: intel·ligible (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 可理解的 (kělǐjiě de)

• Czech: srozumitelný (cs)
• Dutch: verstaanbaar (nl), begrijpelijk (nl)
• Esperanto: komprenebla
• Estonian: arusaadav
• Finnish: ymmärrettävä (fi)
• French: intelligible (fr)
• Galician: intelixíbel (gl)
• German: einleuchtend (de), verständlich (de)
• Greek: νοητός (el) (noïtós), καταληπτός (el) (kataliptós)
• Irish: sothuigthe, intuigthe
• Italian: intelligibile (it)
• Korean: 이해할 수 있는 (ihaehal su inneun)
• Macedonian: поимлив (poimliv)
• Maltese: fhumi
• Manx: so-hoiggal
• Norwegian: forståelig (no)
• Persian: مفهوم (fa) (mafhum)
• Polish: zrozumiały (pl)
• Portuguese: inteligível (pt)
• Romanian: inteligibil (ro)
• Russian: вразуми́тельный (ru) (vrazumítelʹnyj), поня́тный (ru) (ponjátnyj), умопостига́емый (umopostigájemyj)
• Spanish: inteligible (es)
• Swedish: begriplig (sv)
• Turkish: açık (tr), anlaşılır, idrâk edilebilir, anlaşılabilir

See also

• legible

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin intelligibilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.tɛ.li.ʒibl/ ~ /ɛ̃.te.li.ʒibl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ibl
• Homophone: intelligibles
• Hyphenation: in‧tel‧li‧gible

Adjective

intelligible (plural intelligibles)

1. intelligible

   Antonym: inintelligible

Related terms

• intelligibilité

Further reading

• “intelligible”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Middle French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin intelligibilis.

Adjective

intelligible m or f (plural intelligibles)

1. intelligible