unintelligible
gb/ˌʌnɪntˈɛləd͡ʒəbəl/ us/ˌʌnɪntˈɛləd͡ʒəbəl/
C1
English
~ 9000
Senses
0 senses
adjective
C1
property
1
impossible or very hard to understand
Not possible or very hard to understand, usually because the sound or words are not clear.
Usage pattern:
[something] is unintelligible (to [someone])
Common mistake:
Learners sometimes confuse "unintelligible" with "unintelligent". "Unintelligible" describes speech, writing, or sounds that cannot be understood; it does NOT mean a person is not smart. Also, some learners say *"un-understandable"* instead; the natural word is "unintelligible" or "unintelligible to me".
Synonyms
incomprehensible (Slightly more formal; often used for both language and complex ideas that are very hard to understand.)
|
unclear (More general and less strong; suggests something is not easy to understand but not necessarily impossible.)
|
indecipherable (Often used for writing or recorded sound that cannot be read or made out at all.)
Antonyms
intelligible (Direct technical opposite; means able to be understood.)
|
clear (Focuses on being easy to hear or understand without effort.)
Collocations
almost unintelligible
|largely unintelligible
|virtually unintelligible
|unintelligible speech
|unintelligible mumbling
|unintelligible accent
Themes
communication
|language
|core_vocabulary
Examples
- The recording was so full of background noise that most of his comments were unintelligible.
- Her voice became unintelligible as the phone signal started to break up.
- The instructions were written in such dense legal language that they were almost unintelligible to ordinary readers.
- He muttered something unintelligible and walked away before I could ask him to repeat it.
- By the end of the concert, the singer’s lyrics were unintelligible over the distorted guitar.
Learner examples
- The old man spoke very fast, and his words were unintelligible to me.
- The movie was good, but the sound was bad and many lines were unintelligible.
- She sent me a note, but her handwriting was almost unintelligible.
- The call cut out, and the voice on the line became unintelligible.
- Without my glasses, the small text on the screen is unintelligible.
adjective
technical
C2
property
2
not mutually understandable (of languages)
Used for a language or way of speaking that people who speak another language or dialect cannot understand at all.
Usage pattern:
[language/dialect] is unintelligible to [group]
Common mistake:
Learners may not realize this is a somewhat technical use, common in linguistics when talking about relationships between languages. In everyday speech, people more often say a language is "hard to understand" or "I can't understand it" rather than "it is unintelligible".
Synonyms
not mutually intelligible (More explicit technical phrase in linguistics; often used in descriptions of language relationships.)
|
incomprehensible (Broader word that can also apply; less precise for technical linguistic use.)
Antonyms
mutually intelligible (Technical opposite in linguistics; describes languages whose speakers can understand each other without prior study.)
Collocations
mutually unintelligible
|largely unintelligible to [speakers]
|remain unintelligible to outsiders
|unintelligible to non-native speakers
|unintelligible dialects
Themes
language
|linguistics
|communication
|education
Examples
- Many Scandinavian languages are partly mutually intelligible, but Finnish is unintelligible to most of their speakers.
- The village dialect is almost completely unintelligible to speakers from the capital.
- To English speakers, Basque is unintelligible and unrelated to other major European languages.
- These two varieties were once the same language but are now unintelligible to each other’s speakers.
- Some dialects of Chinese are so different that they are mutually unintelligible in spoken form.
Learner examples
- The local dialect was unintelligible to my friend, who only knew standard Italian.
- Old English is unintelligible to most modern English speakers without study.
- For many tourists, the signs were unintelligible because they were written in a different script.
- To children in the city, the language of the mountain village is unintelligible.
- These two dialects sound similar, but they are actually unintelligible to each other’s speakers.
Grammar
Dictionary form
unintelligible
IPA
GB/ˌʌnɪntˈɛləd͡ʒəbəl/
US/ˌʌnɪntˈɛləd͡ʒəbəl/
Syllables & stress
un - in - tel - li - gible (5 syllables)
Stress on 3rd syllable (tel)
Word forms
Adjective
- Base: unintelligible
Word family
Core family
Negative and opposite forms
unintelligibly
adverb
Advanced or less common
unintelligibility
noun
Expressions
mutually unintelligible
1/mjˈut͡ʃuəli ˌʌnɪntˈɛləd͡ʒəbəl/
fixed phrase
technical
languages that cannot be understood crosswise
Used to say that speakers of two different languages or dialects cannot understand each other’s speech at all.
Examples
- The two dialects are mutually unintelligible, so speakers from each region must use a standard language to communicate.
- Although they share many words, the modern and older varieties are now mutually unintelligible in everyday conversation.