unreadable vs illegible
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.
Definitions
adjective
- (of handwriting, print, etc.) not legible
Examples
Her signature is totally illegible .
Carrying the burden of disease used to multiply with the multitude of small and large illegible chits and forms they had to carry with them every time they visited the hospital.
This reverse ekphrasis, with its glimpsed, illegible text, hints at the hidden world of the silent reader.
