incomprehensibility
Quality of baffling completely
Incomprehensibility is the quality of being impossible or extremely difficult to understand.
The word applies to abstruse philosophy, impenetrable legal language, or anything whose meaning eludes grasp: The incomprehensibility of the contract made signing it a leap of faith.
The term sometimes carries a note of criticism—suggesting the obscurity could have been avoided.
Accessible to few
- arcaneUnderstood by few
- reconditeObscure and specialized
- hermeticImpenetrably closed off
- abstruseDifficult to comprehend
inscrutable · unfathomable · impenetrable · opaque · cryptic · dense · inaccessible · rarefied
Mental disorientation or bewilderment
- perplexityMental state of confusion
- befuddlementState of utter confusion
- disorientationLoss of spatial awareness
- puzzlementState of being baffled
bafflement · mystification · stupefaction · daze · fog · muddle · disconcertion · flummoxed
Something hard to fathom
- riddlePuzzling question to solve
- conundrumPerplexing problem or question
- puzzleChallenge testing ingenuity
- paradoxSeemingly absurd truth
cipher · sphinx · unknowable · inscrutable · inexplicable · unexplainable · mystifying · perplexing
State of elaborate complexity
- convolutionTwisting or mathematical integration
- entanglementState of being intertwined
- knottinessComplex, tangled quality
- labyrinthineExtremely complex and winding
byzantine · tangled · tortuous · elaborate · involved · convoluted · multilayered · dense
Impermeability to light
- murkinessDimness, lack of clarity
- vaguenessAbsence of precision
- cloudinessAtmospheric opacity from vapor
- dimnessInsufficient illumination
haziness · illegibility · unreadability · indistinctness · blurriness · fuzziness · smokiness · turbidity
Absence of precision
- equivocationAmbiguous language avoiding commitment
- polysemyWord having related meanings
- indeterminacyLack of fixed outcome
- nebulousnessQuality of being indistinct
ambiguous · unclear · muddled · indistinct · amorphous · indefinite · hazy · blurred
esoteric
Accessible to few
abstruse · inscrutable · unfathomable · impenetrable · opaque · cryptic · dense · inaccessible · rarefied · scholarly
confusion
Mental disorientation or bewilderment
- perplexityMental state of confusion
- befuddlementState of utter confusion
- disorientationLoss of spatial awareness
puzzlement · bafflement · mystification · stupefaction · daze · fog · muddle · disconcertion · flummoxed · nonplussed
enigma
Something hard to fathom
- riddlePuzzling question to solve
- conundrumPerplexing problem or question
- puzzleChallenge testing ingenuity
paradox · cipher · sphinx · unknowable · inscrutable · inexplicable · unexplainable · mystifying · perplexing · baffling
intricacy
State of elaborate complexity
- convolutionTwisting or mathematical integration
- entanglementState of being intertwined
- knottinessComplex, tangled quality
labyrinthine · byzantine · tangled · tortuous · elaborate · involved · convoluted · multilayered · dense · impenetrable
opacity
Impermeability to light
- murkinessDimness, lack of clarity
- vaguenessAbsence of precision
- cloudinessAtmospheric opacity from vapor
dimness · haziness · illegibility · unreadability · indistinctness · blurriness · fuzziness · smokiness · turbidity · obfuscation
vagueness
Absence of precision
- equivocationAmbiguous language avoiding commitment
- polysemyWord having related meanings
- indeterminacyLack of fixed outcome
nebulousness · ambiguous · unclear · muddled · indistinct · amorphous · indefinite · hazy · blurred · ill-defined
- long wordssupercalifragilisticexpialidocious, antidisestablishmentarianism, incomprehensibilities, counterrevolutionary, electroencephalograph
- tricky spellingsaccommodate, acknowledge, acquaintance, acquire, bureau
- divinitydeity, godhood, divine, godhead, holiness
- unclearnessvagueness, ambiguity, obscurity, haziness, fuzziness
- inscrutabilitymystery, enigma, opacity, impenetrability, unknowability
- apophatic theologynegative theology, via negativa, unsaying, unknowing, negation
incomprehensibilitycomprehensibility
Clarity of meaning
understandability · intelligibility · graspability · fathomability · accessibility
incomprehensibilityclarity
State of being understandable
lucidity · clearness · plainness · explicitness · perspicuity
comprehend, comprehension, comprehensible, incomprehensible, uncomprehending, incomprehension, incomprehensibly, uncomprehended, miscomprehends