Meanings
plural readabilities
- countableuncountableThe property of being capable of being read; legibility.
When done correctly, kerning helps to improve the readability of text by adding or removing space between two letters. Bad kerning, also known as keming, leads to misreadings, and in the worst cases, incredibly bad (but humorous) misunderstandings.
2018 April 20, jkohorst, “FR E SH A VOCA DO^([sic])”, in Writing for Designers^([dead link])1 more example
Point-free coding is a byproduct of adopting declarative programming. You can use point-free coding without FP. But because point-free is all about improving the readability of code at a glance and making it simpler to parse, having the guarantees imposed by FP furthers this cause.
2021, Luis Atencio, The Joy of JavaScript, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 104
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna quality of writing (print or handwriting) that can be easily read
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From readable + -ity or read + -ability.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian четливост, увлекателност
- четливост (četlivost)property of being capable of being read
- увлекателност (uvlekatelnost)property of being easy or engaging to read
Catalan llegibilitat, llegibilitat
- llegibilitatproperty of being capable of being read
- llegibilitatproperty of being easy or engaging to read
Chinese Mandarin 易讀 /易读, 可讀 /可读
- 易讀 /易读 (yìdú)property of being capable of being read
- 可讀 /可读 (kědú)property of being capable of being read
- 易讀 /易读 (yìdú)property of being easy or engaging to read
- 可讀性 /可读性 (kědúxìng)property of being easy or engaging to read
Czech čitelnost, čtivost
- čitelnostproperty of being capable of being read
- čtivostproperty of being easy or engaging to read
Dutch leesbaarheid, leesbaarheid
- leesbaarheidproperty of being capable of being read
- leesbaarheidproperty of being easy or engaging to read
Finnish luettavuus, luettavuus
- luettavuusproperty of being capable of being read
- luettavuusproperty of being easy or engaging to read
French lisibilité
- lisibilitéproperty of being capable of being read
German Lesbarkeit, Lesbarkeit
- Lesbarkeitproperty of being capable of being read
- Lesbarkeitproperty of being easy or engaging to read
Hungarian olvashatóság
- olvashatóságproperty of being capable of being read
Malay kebolehbacaan, kebolehbacaan
- kebolehbacaanproperty of being capable of being read
- kebolehbacaanproperty of being easy or engaging to read
Norwegian Bokmål lesbarhet
- lesbarhetproperty of being capable of being read
Polish czytelność
- czytelnośćproperty of being capable of being read
Russian удобочита́емость, чёткость
- удобочита́емость (udobočitájemostʹ)property of being capable of being read
- чёткость (čótkostʹ)property of being capable of being read
- разбо́рчивость (razbórčivostʹ)property of being capable of being read
- чита́бельность (čitábelʹnostʹ)property of being capable of being read
- приго́дность для чте́ния (prigódnostʹ dlja čténija)property of being capable of being read
- чита́бельность (čitábelʹnostʹ)property of being easy or engaging to read
- приго́дность для чте́ния (prigódnostʹ dlja čténija)property of being easy or engaging to read
Swedish läsbarhet, lättlästhet
- läsbarhetproperty of being capable of being read
- lättlästhetproperty of being easy or engaging to read
Cite this entry
readability. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/readability
“readability.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/readability. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “readability,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/readability.
Source: readability on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.