How to spell legible

hear itleg·i·ble/'lɛdʒəbəl/adjectiveSchwa and roots

What it means: Able to be read easily.

In a sentence: Your handwriting is very neat and legible!

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as legable or legiblee.

Same family: illegible, legibly, legibility, readable, clear. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Legible” comes from the Latin word *legere*, meaning “to read.” It’s closely related to “legal” and “lecture,” which also grew from the same old idea of reading and choosing words carefully.

Patterns it uses: -able or -ible? · The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

eligible · digestible · invincible · negligible · sensible · allergic · invisible · geologist

Spelling.School is a spaced-repetition spelling practice: ten minutes a day, every word spoken aloud, every miss explained, and every word coming back just before you would forget it. Try five words without signing up.