as in unreadable
incapable of being read or deciphered
illegible signatures on the petition will be disregarded
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of illegible
Simon managed to keep scribbling on his yellow legal pad but his handwriting, illegible on a good day, quickly deteriorated into nothing more than chicken scratch.
—
Lizz Schumer, PEOPLE, 17 Oct. 2025
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
See All Example Sentences for illegible
Lizz Schumer, PEOPLE, 17 Oct. 2025
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
See All Example Sentences for illegible
Recent Examples of Synonyms for illegible
Adjective
-
In early 2025, the victim was 56-year-old Gerald Neal, a pedestrian who was run over twice as an unmarked police truck chased a vehicle in Holden Heights over an unreadable license plate.—
Stephen Hudak,
The Orlando Sentinel,
21 Jan. 2026
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In some cases, postmarks may also be faint or unreadable.—
Evan Moore,
Charlotte Observer,
7 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Malcolm’s subjects are very old-school, doctrinaire, rigid Freudian psychoanalysts who get involved in impossibly obscure academic debates.—
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
28 Jan. 2026
-
But then last January, an obscure AI startup named DeepSeek released a generative AI platform, R1, which was comparable to ChatGPT but purporting to use just a fraction of Nvidia’s bleeding-edge chips.—
Charlie Campbell,
Time,
27 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Memes have always carried layered messages that are funny or informative to people who understand them, but indecipherable to outsiders.—
Kaitlyn Huamani,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Jan. 2026
-
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.—
Javier Montes,
Artforum,
1 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Even during moderate storms, auroras can appear as faint, gray or milky arcs to the naked eye, while appearing vivid in photographs.—
Jamie Carter,
Forbes.com,
27 Jan. 2026
-
This allows exposures stretching up to 30 minutes, soaking up huge amounts of light to reveal incredibly faint objects in sharp detail.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
26 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
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.—
CT Jones,
Rolling Stone,
26 July 2025
-
Claims complexity: The billing process between hospitals and insurers is opaque to patients, who often receive surprising and undecipherable bills months after receiving care.—
Dan Gingiss,
Forbes.com,
11 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Maybe weekly status updates are inconsistent, decisions get delayed because of unclear responsibilities or communication across departments stalls because of missing context.—
Sho Dewan,
Forbes.com,
27 Jan. 2026
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Experts told Fox News Digital that while many details remain unclear, the scope of the apparent purge points to mounting instability under Chinese President Xi Jinping, with potential implications for regional security and rising tensions around Taiwan.—
Efrat Lachter,
FOXNews.com,
26 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Illegible.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/illegible. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.
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