How to Use unintelligible in a Sentence

unintelligible

adjective
  • Ordaz, standing in the street near the front of his car, said something unintelligible to the deputies.
    Matthew Ormseth, Los Angeles Times, 30 July 2021
  • Four officers pull him through a hole in the roof, and Ramos moans and makes unintelligible sounds.
    Dallas News, 18 Oct. 2022
  • Though it might have been filled with music—such as the Byzantine liturgy, which was sung there—the words would have been unintelligible.
    The New Yorker, 31 Oct. 2022
  • Unless it is made clear what is meant by the latter, the first remains unintelligible and vague.
    Vikram Sampath, Quartz India, 20 Aug. 2019
  • While the voices in the clip are speaking English, most of it is unintelligible.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 20 Apr. 2021
  • The woman could be heard yelling in the background, her words unintelligible.
    Blake Nelson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Apr. 2023
  • The lyrics are unintelligible and the backing track is the definition of dull.
    Kris Holt, Forbes, 12 Aug. 2022
  • The arena fills with the static screech of a girl’s almost unintelligible screams.
    Men's Health, 28 Nov. 2022
  • Notably, the researchers tested the system on people whom it had not been trained on and found that the results were unintelligible.
    Julia Musto, Fox News, 3 May 2023
  • Due to her stroke, Claire's mother's speech is slurred to such an extent that half her lines are rendered unintelligible.
    Dmitry Samarov, Chicago Reader, 22 June 2018
  • To the uninitiated, the last section of the board at the bottom left may be no more unintelligible than the rest, but that part, Balzano says, was a drawing by her then 2.5-year-old daughter.
    Clara Moskowitz, Scientific American, 24 Apr. 2021
  • Zhuang, their bishop, was born in this area and, like them, speaks Hakka, a language that is unintelligible to many Chinese.
    Emily Rauhala, Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2018
  • Nichols asks why he was stopped, but there is no apparent answer (large chunks of the video are either silent or unintelligible).
    Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, 27 Jan. 2023
  • Modern physics, to most of us, is unintelligible, but who cares when physics gives us smartphones and hydrogen bombs?
    John Horgan, Scientific American, 7 July 2022
  • On the whole, Wheeler and Chao made a host of unintelligible arguments.
    Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 19 Sep. 2019
  • But a nasal fistula—a hole between his nose and mouth—made his speech garbled and unintelligible.
    Dave Eshleman, The Mercury News, 7 Jan. 2024
  • But the English accents and olde world-isms (thee, thou etc.) were almost unintelligible.
    Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 23 Jan. 2018
  • The researchers filtered out the high frequencies of the sound clips, which essentially rendered the clips unintelligible but left the tone of voice intact.
    al, 19 July 2021
  • The gallery is filled with an a cappella song, written and sung by Gates, that resembles a hymn but is largely unintelligible.
    Sharon Mizota, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2019
  • Even among those who can read lips, 30 percent of the English language is unintelligible through lip-reading, meaning many words can be missed.
    Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News, 21 Sep. 2017
  • Even if the data is encrypted and unintelligible—as the recordings from all major smart speakers are—it can be tracked or saved for later.
    Eric Limer, Popular Mechanics, 4 Oct. 2017
  • Several accounts have also claimed to use audio isolation to prove an unintelligible shout in the video is warning the teen about a fin in the water.
    Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 5 June 2023
  • The man was approached by South by Southwest venue staff after falling asleep with his legs propped up and yelled something unintelligible in response.
    Selome Hailu, Variety, 15 Mar. 2023
  • Who would have ever guessed that the biggest talking point of the Mariners’ season so far would be a novelty song with largely unintelligible lyrics that was written in 1955?
    Larry Stone, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Apr. 2022
  • Pop fans have no problem listening to loud music in which the words to songs are unintelligible — just disembodied words or vocal sounds and a strong beat.
    Mark Swed, latimes.com, 12 Apr. 2018
  • Most of the drawings are unintelligible, but there are a few recognizable scenes.
    Nomaan Merchant, Cincinnati.com, 9 July 2018
  • The victim, police say, opened the door and found 53-year-old James Bowers there sweating heavily and speaking unintelligible words.
    Nicholas Rondinone, courant.com, 6 Sep. 2017
  • All the Mayan languages share a common root, but most of them are mutually unintelligible.
    Rachel Nolan, The New Yorker, 30 Dec. 2019
  • The captain made another call on a handheld radio at 7:05 but the content was again unintelligible.
    Paulina Dedaj, Fox News, 28 July 2018
  • Or would its perception of the world, its entire ordering of consciousness, be so alien as to be unintelligible?
    Camille Bromley, WIRED, 29 Aug. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unintelligible.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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