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 Sponsor is not responsible for late, illegible, incomplete entries or entries not received for any reason. Time For Kids, TIME, 21 Feb. 2025 His talent was unmistakable, his ego was illegible and his time with us unforgettable. Catherine Santino, People.com, 19 Feb. 2025 Unfortunately, most of the candies in my box were illegible. Kathy Barnes, Better Homes & Gardens, 11 Feb. 2025 The thirty-thousand-year-old cave paintings at Chauvet–Pont d’Arc are ghostly images from the abyss of deep time whose purpose is illegible to us. Donna Tartt, Harper's Magazine, 2 July 2024 See All Example Sentences for illegible
Recent Examples of Synonyms for illegible
Adjective
  • Your data is also encrypted, meaning it’s scrambled into an unreadable format to prevent unauthorized access.
    Ryley Amond, CNBC, 27 Dec. 2024
  • There are other snafus: The calligraphy on the place-setting cards is unreadable, and someone described as an energy medium has tried to muck around with the dining room’s musty feng shui.
    Tom Gliatto, People.com, 20 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • Chicagoans may be following the back and forth between the City Council and Chicago Public Schools leadership over an obscure pension payment and wonder how does this affect me?
    Jason Ervin, Chicago Tribune, 19 Mar. 2025
  • Couple that with obscure sourcing practices, harmful environmental impacts, and questionable animal welfare practices, and the cost of it all starts to add up.
    Sam Delgado, Vox, 17 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • The sound mix can be a little fuzzy wuzzy at times, dropping whole stretches of lyrics into almost indecipherable murkiness.
    Rod Stafford Hagwood, Sun Sentinel, 8 Mar. 2025
  • The capability allowed users to encrypt almost all of their iCloud data, making messages, notes, photos and iPhone backups indecipherable, even when the information was stored in cloud computing centers.
    Tripp Mickle, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • Deeper within the planet, though, the surface might be emanating a faint red, due to incandescence resulting from being baked by its star.
    Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Apr. 2025
  • Fore one, telescopes have difficulty distinguishing the faint light from a planet from the much brighter light emitted by its host star.
    Victoria Corless, Space.com, 1 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • 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
  • When the Giants finally chose Kadarius Toney, a wide receiver from the University of Florida, with the 20th pick in the N.F.L. draft, the team’s fans in Cleveland took a good 10 seconds to start a slow clap, mouthing undecipherable questions beneath their masks.
    New York Times, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2021
Adjective
  • The plan has created significant uncertainty, and many of its core components — including the number of countries impacted, how each country’s tariff rate is being calculated, and which nations will be hardest hit — remain unclear.
    Kevin Breuninger, CNBC, 31 Mar. 2025
  • The precise limits of how much Congress may delegate this power to the executive are unclear—indeed, the Supreme Court in last term's Loper Bright v. Raimondo seemed to give wide latitude for Congress to make explicit, flexible delegations to the executive.
    Ron Estes, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2025

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“Illegible.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/illegible. Accessed 8 Apr. 2025.

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