illegible vs unreadable
Definitions
adjective
- (of handwriting, print, etc.) not legible
Examples
Her signature is totally illegible .
This reverse ekphrasis, with its glimpsed, illegible text, hints at the hidden world of the silent reader.
The papyri are broken and illegible; you must assemble an intelligible jigsaw from jagged fragments, truncated lines and eroded ink.
Definitions
adjective
- not easily deciphered
Examples
He sat at the opposite side of the table from Nero, his expression unreadable due to the fact that his face was concealed by a smooth oval mask of flawless black glass.
The ineffable in poetry is almost always the unreadable.
Tchitcherine tracks mud off the street into the Center, gets a blush from Luba, a kind of kowtow and mopflourish from the comical Chinese swamper Chu Piang, unreadable stares from an early pupil or two.
