Sýnilegu

Sýnilegu is an Icelandic inflected form of the adjective sýnilegur, meaning “visible” or “apparent.” The core sense covers anything that can be perceived by sight or that is evident. Like other Icelandic adjectives, sýnilegu agrees with the noun it modifies in gender, number, and case, so the spelling changes to reflect grammatical context. It is not a separate lexical item from sýnilegur but a specific grammatical form of it.

Etymology and forms: The adjective derives from the root sýn- meaning “to see” and the suffixes used to form adjectives describing perceptibility. Icelandic adjectives have several inflected forms, including sýnilegur, sýnilegt, sýnileg, and sýnilegu, depending on the noun’s gender, number, and case. The various forms share the same underlying meaning of visibility or apparentness.

Usage: In Icelandic, the concept of visibility is expressed across everyday language and technical writing. Sýnilegu emphasizes perceptibility by sight, while related words such as sjáanlegt and augljóst convey related ideas of being observable or obvious. The form sýnilegu commonly appears in sentences where the noun requires a particular inflection, reflecting standard Icelandic grammar rather than a separate lexical item.

See also: sýnilegur, sjáanlegt, augljóst, ímyndun and related terms for perception and visibility in Icelandic.