unintelligible

adjective

un·​in·​tel·​li·​gi·​ble ˌən-in-ˈte-lə-jə-bəl 

: unable to be understood or comprehended : not intelligible

a song with unintelligible lyrics

unintelligible jargon

… including parenthetical translations of the words and phrases he knew would be unintelligible to contemporary readers.

—John N. Green

unintelligibility

ˌən-in-ˌte-lə-jə-ˈbi-lə-tē 

noun

or less commonly unintelligibleness

unintelligibly

ˌən-in-ˈte-lə-jə-blē 

adverb

muttering unintelligibly

Synonyms

• impenetrable
• incomprehensible
• unfathomable
• ungraspable

Examples of unintelligible in a Sentence

uttered only a string of unintelligible murmurs

Recent Examples on the Web

Last November, the satellite began transmitting unintelligible strings of data, as opposed to the binary code it is supposed to send, back to NASA’s scientists. —Christian Thorsberg, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 June 2024

Instead, the spacecraft's data stream was entirely unintelligible. —Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 23 Apr. 2024

Like professors in different university departments, the brain’s various modules create mutually unintelligible jargons. —George Musser, Scientific American, 19 Mar. 2024

Yet its politics and society, not to mention its unintelligible dialect of German, remain closed to outsiders. —Paul Lendvai, Foreign Affairs, 1 Mar. 2011

Word History

First Known Use

1664, in the meaning defined above