Definition

Noun: 1. The quality of being comprehensible or understandable: The characteristic of language, speech, or an idea that can be easily grasped and understood by a listener or reader. 2. The degree to which something is clear and can be understood: A measure of how easily meaning can be discerned from spoken or written communication.

Usage and Examples

• General Use: Refers to the clarity and comprehensibility of communication.
  • The intelligibility of the lecture was high because the professor spoke clearly and used simple terms.
  • Poor sound quality reduced the intelligibility of the emergency broadcast.
• In Linguistics and Acoustics: Often used to describe how understandable speech is, especially in noisy environments or for non-native speakers.
  • The study measured the intelligibility of whispered speech.
  • A key goal in language teaching is to improve the intelligibility of a learner's pronunciation.

Advanced Usage and Nuances

• Mutual Intelligibility: A technical term in linguistics referring to the relationship between languages or dialects where speakers can understand each other without prior study.
  • Danish and Swedish have a high degree of mutual intelligibility.
• Threshold of Intelligibility: The minimum level of clarity needed for speech or a signal to be understood.
  • The signal-to-noise ratio fell below the threshold of intelligibility.

Variants and Related Words

• Intelligible (adjective): Able to be understood; comprehensible.
  • His accent was heavy but his speech was still intelligible.
• Unintelligibility (noun): The quality of being impossible or very difficult to understand.
  • The unintelligibility of the ancient manuscript puzzled scholars.

Synonyms

• Comprehensibility: The quality of being able to be understood.
• Clarity: The quality of being clear and easy to understand.
• Lucidity: Clearness of expression or thought.

Antonyms

• Incomprehensibility: The quality of being impossible to understand.
• Unintelligibility: The state of being unclear or not understandable.
• Obscurity: The state of being unknown or difficult to understand.

Related Phrases and Concepts

• Speech Intelligibility: A specific field of study assessing how clearly speech is understood, often used in audio engineering, telecommunications, and speech therapy.
  • The new hearing aid significantly improved her speech intelligibility in crowded rooms.
• Readability vs. Intelligibility: While often refers to how easy text is to read based on style and layout, focuses on the comprehensibility of the meaning itself.

Noun

1. the quality of language that is comprehensible