Visible

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈvɪzɪb(ə)l/

Definitions

1. Able to be seen with the eyes or easily noticed and apparent
2. Capable of being perceived by sight, easily recognizable, or prominent in the surrounding environment
3. Measurable through sight, readily apparent to an observer, or standing out in a given context

Etymology: "Visible" arrived in English from Old French, which had taken it from Late Latin "visibilis," meaning "that may be seen." Its root is Latin "videre," "to see," the same root that gives English "vision" and "video." The word's ancestry is therefore almost entirely Latin, but it did not come straight from the classical language; it passed through the medieval French of England's ruling class and was adopted in Middle English. The more striking detail is what it replaced. Before "visible" took hold, English speakers used the native Old English "ġesewenlīċ," built from roots meaning "seen" and a suffix for "-like" or "-ly." That older word disappeared, so the Latin borrowing became the everyday term. English thus ended up with a second, foreign way of expressing an idea its own vocabulary had already covered.

Synonyms: apparent, clear, evident, observable, discernible

Antonyms: invisible, hidden, obscure, concealed, unseen