incomprehensible

Incomprehensible is an adjective describing something that cannot be understood or is very difficult to understand. It may refer to speech, writing, or ideas that resist intelligibility due to complexity, obscurity, unfamiliar language, ambiguous structure, or perceptual barriers. The term derives from the Latin incomprehensibilis, from in- "not" + comprehendere "to seize or grasp." In English, incomprehensible is often used when content exceeds the listener's or reader's ability to make sense of it, rather than merely being poorly expressed.

In practice, incomprehensible speech may result from rapid or mumbled delivery, heavy jargon, or a foreign language. Incomprehensible handwriting or typesetting makes text unreadable. In analysis, an argument may be described as incomprehensible if its premises and conclusions fail to connect in a way that a reader can follow. It is closely related to, but distinct from, inscrutable (shrouded in mystery or enigmatic) and unintelligible (completely unable to be understood, sometimes due to phonetic or lexical obstacles).

Related terms include unintelligible, opaque, and inscrutable. Antonyms are intelligible, understandable, and comprehensible. The noun form is incomprehensibility, used to refer to the quality or state of being incomprehensible. In usage, prefer incomprehensible when describing the effectiveness of comprehension rather than the speaker's intent.

See also: intelligibility, language barrier, jargon, readability, inscrutability.