indecipherability

The ancient manuscript's indecipherability frustrated the scholars.

Definition

Noun: The quality or state of being impossible to read, interpret, or make sense of due to obscurity, illegibility, or complexity.

Usage Examples

• (The script could not be read or interpreted.)
• (The note could not be understood because it was illegible.)
• (The code could not be decoded.)

Advanced Usage

• "absolute indecipherability": complete and total inability to be read or understood.

  • The document's absolute indecipherability led to its being classified as lost. (It was entirely impossible to read.)

• "indecipherability of meaning": the quality of a text or message being so obscure that its intended sense cannot be grasped.

  • The poem's indecipherability of meaning left critics debating for decades. (The poem's meaning was impossible to determine.)

Variants and Related Words

• Indecipherable (adj): impossible to read or understand.

  • The scribble on the paper was indecipherable. (It could not be read.)

• Decipherability (n): the quality of being possible to read or interpret.

  • The decipherability of the message depended on having the correct key. (The message could be read with the right tool.)

• Decipher (v): to convert (a code or illegible writing) into readable form.

  • She used a special tool to decipher the ancient text. (She made it readable.)

Synonyms

• Illegibility: the quality of being impossible to read due to poor handwriting or printing.
• Unintelligibility: the quality of being impossible to understand.
• Obscurity: the quality of being difficult to perceive or understand.

Related Idioms

• "a closed book": something that is impossible to understand or interpret.

  • The complex legal document was a closed book to the layperson. (It was indecipherable to someone without legal training.)

• "Greek to me": something that is completely incomprehensible.

  • The technical jargon was all Greek to me. (It was indecipherable to the listener.)