comprehensible, a.
(kɒmprɪˈhɛnsɪb(ə)l)
[ad. L. comprehensibil-em, f. comprehens- ppl. stem of comprehend-ĕre: see comprehend and -ble. Cf. mod.F. compréhensible (earlier comprehensable).]
Capable of being comprehended.
1. That may be comprised or contained.
| 1529 More Heresyes i. Wks. 121/2 He is not comprehensyble nor circumscribed no where. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. ii. 11 An argument comprehensible within the notice and instructions of the writer. 1799 T. Beddoes Contrib. Phys. & Med. 217 The phænomena in which light and oxygen are concerned, especially as the actions of life promise to be comprehensible under them. |
2. That may be grasped: † a. sensibly: Palpable.
| 1579 North Plutarch 261 Things not comprehensible, and without body. |
b. mentally: Conceivable, intelligible.
| 1598 Florio Comprehensibile, comprehensible, that may be comprehended. a 1631 Donne Selections (1840) 181 It is apprehensible by sense, and not comprehensible by reason. 1815 Scribbleomania 248 To render the subject comprehensible to the meanest capacity. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India i. vi. I. 325 For reasons not easily comprehensible. |
compreˈhensibleness, comprehensible quality.
| 1669 H. More Exp. 7 Epist. Pref. (T.), Which facility and comprehensibleness must needs improve the usefulness of these expositions very considerably. |