visible

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin visibilis (“that may be seen”), from Latin videre (“to see”), past participle visus; see vision.

Pronunciation

• enPR: vĭz'ə-bəl, IPA^(key): /ˈvɪzəb(ə)l/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

visible (comparative more visible, superlative most visible)

1. Able to be seen.

   When the sun rises, the world becomes visible.

   • 1646, Thomas Browne, “Of the Cameleon”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: Or, Enquiries into Very Many Received Tenents, and Commonly Presumed Truths, London: Printed for Tho. Harper for Edvvard Dod, OCLC 838860010; Pseudodoxia Epidemica: Or, Enquiries into Very Many Received Tenents, and Commonly Presumed Truths. […], book 3, 2nd corrected and much enlarged edition, London: Printed by A. Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath. Ekins, […], 1650, OCLC 152706203, page 133:

     It cannot be denied it [the chameleon] is (if not the moſt of any) a very abſtemious animall, and ſuch as by reaſon of its frigidity, paucity of bloud, and latitancy in the winter (about which time the obſervations are often made) will long ſubſist without a viſible ſuſtentation.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited.

   • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 206-7:

     Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close […] above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world—camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.

Adjective

visible (epicene, plural visibles)

1. visible (able to be seen)

Etymology

From Latin vīsibilis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /viˈzi.blə/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /biˈzi.blə/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /viˈzi.ble/

Adjective

visible (masculine and feminine plural visibles)

1. visible

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vi.zibl/

• audio

  (file)

Adjective

visible (plural visibles)

1. visible

External links

• “visible” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Alternative forms

• visíbel

Adjective

visible m, f (plural visibles)

1. visible

Etymology

Late 12th century, borrowed from Latin visibilis.

Adjective

visible m (oblique and nominative feminine singular visible)

1. visible (able to be seen)

Adjective

visible (plural visibles)

1. visible