Unreadability

Unreadability is the quality or state of being difficult or impossible to read or decipher. It typically arises from factors such as poor handwriting, illegible fonts, excessive complexity, poor formatting, or the use of unfamiliar jargon or technical terms. The term encompasses both physical challenges in reading and conceptual difficulties in understanding the content. Essentially, it signifies a barrier to comprehension, hindering the efficient extraction of information and often leading to frustration for the reader. This can be a significant problem in various contexts, from legal documents and scientific papers to everyday communication and literature.

Unreadability meaning with examples

• The doctor's prescription was a prime example of unreadability; the hurried scrawl of the handwriting was a swirling mess of loops and dashes, rendering the instructions completely indecipherable. The pharmacist struggled to make out the intended medication and dosage, highlighting the potential dangers inherent in such levels of illegibility, which could even involve an incorrect dose or the wrong medication.
• The legal contract, filled with dense paragraphs, convoluted sentences, and an abundance of technical jargon, demonstrated the challenge of unreadability. Its complex language, coupled with a small font size and dense formatting, meant that even seasoned lawyers required significant time and effort to unravel its meaning, obscuring the terms of the agreement, and potentially placing signatories at a disadvantage.
• The outdated website's code, a labyrinth of disorganized and poorly commented HTML and CSS, presented unreadability, even to experienced web developers. Trying to understand the existing functionality to make changes was near impossible; any modifications risked introducing unintended errors and it slowed the progress of necessary updates and potentially rendered the website insecure and unreliable.
• The ancient scroll's faded ink and damaged papyrus, further compounded by the script's unfamiliar characters, exemplified the issue of unreadability. It's fragile state and damaged format made it exceedingly difficult to discern the original text; Scholars were required to use specialized imaging techniques and translation efforts to painstakingly extract any remnants of meaning from the document, a process often yielding incomplete results.