legible
/ˈlɛd͡ʒəbl/adjective
legible is spelled L-E-G-I-B-L-E: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,998th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, legible means “Clear enough to be read; readable, particularly of handwriting” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in legible?
| Letters | 7: L-E-G-I-B-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 36,998th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is legible?
Legible appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,998th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce legible?
- /ˈlɛd͡ʒəbl/
Legible has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-legible.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of legible
- more legible comparative
- most legible superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does legible mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Clear enough to be read; readable, particularly of handwriting.
Despite hardly having any energy to lift a pen, she left a legible note on the paper.
- 2
Written or phrased so as to be easy to understand.
You can make this program code more legible by using meaningful variable names.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Legible in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense clear enough to be read:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does legible come from?
From Late Latin legibilis (“that can be read”), from Latin legō.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).