Meanings
comparative more unreadable · superlative most unreadable
- Not written clearly enough to be deciphered.
unreadable charts
3 more examples
unreadable handwriting
a machine that cut up secret documents into small unreadable fragments
Although the kyūjitai kanji were not banned, the obsolete kyūjitai kanji have become unreadable to more and more readers over time, thus making texts including them difficult for modern readers, but at least there is a recognized mapping from new form to old form.
2020, Stewart Arneil, “Encoding Disappearing Characters: The Case of Twentieth-Century Japanese-Canadian Names”, in Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative, number 12, Text Encoding Initiative Consortium, →DOI, →ISSNSynonyms: illegible, indecipherable, unclear
- Not able to be accessed or played by some technical device.
The scratched CD is unreadable.
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveNot written clearly enough to be deciphered.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivenot easily deciphered
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*né
- Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
- Proto-Germanic*un-
- Proto-West Germanic*un-
- Old Englishun-
- Middle Englishun-
- Englishun-
- Middle Englishredable
- Englishreadable
- Englishunreadable
Translations
Bulgarian неразбираем, нечетлив
- неразбираем (nerazbiraem)that cannot be deciphered
- нечетлив (nečetliv)that cannot be deciphered
- безинтересен (bezinteresen)making an unpleasant reading experience
Chinese Mandarin 不好讀 /不好读, 不易讀 /不易读
- 不好讀 /不好读 (bùhǎodú)making an unpleasant reading experience
- 不易讀 /不易读 (bùyìdú)making an unpleasant reading experience
Dutch onleesbaar, onleesbare
- onleesbaarthat cannot be deciphered
- onleesbarethat cannot be deciphered
Finnish lukukelvoton, mahdoton lukea
- lukukelvotonthat cannot be deciphered
- mahdoton lukeathat cannot be deciphered
French illisible, illisible
- illisiblethat cannot be deciphered
- illisiblemaking an unpleasant reading experience
German unleserlich, unlesbar
- unleserlichthat cannot be deciphered
- unlesbarthat cannot be deciphered
Greek δυσανάγνωστος, δυσκολοδιάβαστος
- δυσανάγνωστος (dysanágnostos)that cannot be deciphered
- δυσκολοδιάβαστος (dyskolodiávastos)making an unpleasant reading experience
Hungarian olvashatatlan, kivehetetlen
- olvashatatlanthat cannot be deciphered
- kivehetetlenthat cannot be deciphered
- unalmasmaking an unpleasant reading experience
- érdektelenmaking an unpleasant reading experience
- nem olvasmányosmaking an unpleasant reading experience
Italian illeggibile, illeggibile
- illeggibilethat cannot be deciphered
- illeggibilemaking an unpleasant reading experience
Persian لایقرء, ناخوانا
- لایقرء (lâ-yoqra')that cannot be deciphered
- ناخواناthat cannot be deciphered
Polish nieczytelny
- nieczytelnythat cannot be deciphered
Russian неприго́дный для чте́ния, нечита́бельный
- неприго́дный для чте́ния (neprigódnyj dlja čténija)that cannot be deciphered
- нечита́бельный (nečitábelʹnyj)that cannot be deciphered
- нечита́бельный (nečitábelʹnyj)making an unpleasant reading experience
- неприго́дный для чте́ния (neprigódnyj dlja čténija)making an unpleasant reading experience
Spanish ilegible
- ilegiblethat cannot be deciphered
Swedish oläslig, oläsbar
- oläsligthat cannot be deciphered
- oläsbarthat cannot be deciphered
- oläsbarmaking an unpleasant reading experience
- oläsligmaking an unpleasant reading experience
Cite this entry
unreadable. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unreadable
“unreadable.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unreadable. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unreadable,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unreadable.
Source: unreadable on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.