as in unreadable
incapable of being read or deciphered
illegible signatures on the petition will be disregarded
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Recent Examples of illegible
Sponsor is not responsible for any lost, late, misdirected, illegible, incomplete, mutilated, postage due or mechanically reproduced Entries or Entries that have been tampered with or not obtained through legitimate channels, all of which will be disqualified.
—
Vogue, 13 Oct. 2025
In 1494, for example, mathematician and ‘father of modern accounting’ Luca Pacioli wrote of Venetian merchants willfully rendering their ledgers illegible.
—Allie Garfinkle, Fortune, 1 Oct. 2025
Wilson showed her a picture of their first tag, an illegible scrawl.
—Madeleine Wulfahrt, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025
The letter featured a number of typos, and the Federal Reserve’s seal was illegible and appeared to be generated by artificial intelligence.
—Brett Samuels, The Hill, 22 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for illegible
Recent Examples of Synonyms for illegible
Adjective
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In some cases, postmarks may also be faint or unreadable.—
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Some pages that are currently public are entirely unreadable.—
Adjective
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Yorgos suggested Bugonia, which comes from an obscure Greek myth about a colony of bees that arises from the corpse of a cow.—
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But unlike Andor, which used its relatively obscure protagonist to showcase regular citizens’ resistance to the tyranny that’s so integral to the Star Wars mythology, Seven Kingdoms seems to exist mostly to tide us over between Dragon seasons.—
Adjective
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Two streetlamps engaged in a mute but luminous dialogue, an indecipherable Morse code, alluding to the silent exchanges and secret ciphers of strangers who meet there for their trysts.—
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If the manual is indecipherable or nonexistent, which is often the case, a clear YouTube video or online guide can help.—
Adjective
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These atoms scatter ultraviolet sunlight, forming a faint halo around Earth.—
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The constant food noise went from being a screaming voice in my head to a faint whisper.—
Adjective
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Several creators who previously worked day jobs tell Rolling Stone that there’s an ongoing stigma surrounding the idea of leaving a steady day job — a stigma that’s decided less by rules and more by undecipherable vibes.—
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Claims complexity: The billing process between hospitals and insurers is opaque to patients, who often receive surprising and undecipherable bills months after receiving care.—
Adjective
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The circumstances of Villegas-Gonzalez's death remain unclear.—
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While past studies have shown that dairy products may have a protective effect against dementia, how specific dairy products affect cognitive health remains unclear.—
Cite this Entry
“Illegible.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/illegible. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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