as in unreadable
incapable of being read or deciphered illegible signatures on the petition will be disregarded

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of illegible Most of these park signs are either dented, on rusty poles, illegible or contradict each other. John Michael Pierobon, Sun Sentinel, 25 May 2025 Some of the headstones have legible names, others are illegible or are just horizontal blocks indicating a grave. Briah Lumpkins, Charlotte Observer, 8 May 2025 In his debut novel, Ocean Vuong took pains to be illegible. Andrea Long Chu, Vulture, 6 May 2025 Inscriptions on the walls of the entrance reference the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, but the name of the king buried within the tomb is illegible. Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for illegible
Recent Examples of Synonyms for illegible
Adjective
  • The goal was to leave it unreadable until an authority could rule on whether to keep it sealed during the complaint process, according to a footnote in the complaint.
    Darcie Moran, Freep.com, 11 July 2025
  • Price said ballots needing to be remade could include overseas ballots that aren't submitted on ballots readable to the county's voting equipment, absentee ballots that may have been folded for mailing or ballots that are unreadable by the voting machines for other reasons.
    Tom Sissom, Arkansas Online, 26 June 2025
Adjective
  • Chartreuse Made by actual French monks based on a nearly 300-year-old secret recipe, this high-proof, kelly green spirit is a bit of an obscure flex.
    Amiel Stanek, Bon Appetit Magazine, 11 July 2025
  • Outraged, Gauguin located an obscure French law that proved only children within a four-kilometre radius of a school were bound to attend.
    Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker, 11 July 2025
Adjective
  • But previously indecipherable 20-year-old data from NASA and European Space Agency telescopes suggests that flares from magnetars that formed much earlier — during the infancy of the universe — may have provided another way for the creation of gold, Burns said.
    Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 3 May 2025
  • Many are rhythmic ditties verging on rap — fine for solos but indecipherable chorally, especially when the rhymes are so vague.
    Jesse Green, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • These pictures reveal faint details that were previously invisible.
    Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 14 July 2025
  • Bell Labs gave me free rein to engineer new systems that would detect those extremely faint signals.
    Jenna Ahart, Quanta Magazine, 11 July 2025
Adjective
  • 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
  • Hinton then offered an extremely detailed scientific explanation of why that's the case -- an explanation that would be undecipherable to anyone but an AI creator like himself.
    Josh Meyer, USA TODAY, 4 May 2023
Adjective
  • However, details of the training—including its content and duration—remain unclear.
    Ryan Chan, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 July 2025
  • The lawyer said that Jackson was not involved in a fight and the cause of his death is unclear.
    Tesfaye Negussie, ABC News, 15 July 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Illegible.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/illegible. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.

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