Adjacent Words

invisible definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: impossible or nearly impossible to see; imperceptible by the eye; "the invisible man"; "invisible rays"; "an invisible hinge"; "invisible mending" [syn: invisible, unseeable] [ant: seeable, visible]
2: not prominent or readily noticeable; "he pushed the string through an inconspicuous hole"; "the invisible man" [syn: inconspicuous, invisible] [ant: conspicuous]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin invisibilis, from in- + visibilis visible Date: 14th century 1. a. incapable by nature of being seen b. inaccessible to view ; hidden 2. imperceptible, inconspicuous 3. a. not appearing in published financial statements b. not reflected in statistics • invisibility noun • invisible noun • invisibleness noun • invisibly adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 not visible to the eye, either characteristically or because hidden. 2 too small to be seen or noticed. 3 artfully concealed (invisible mending). Phrases and idioms: invisible exports (or imports etc.) items, esp. services, involving payment between countries but not constituting tangible commodities. Derivatives: invisibility n. invisibleness n. invisibly adv. Etymology: ME f. OF invisible or L invisibilis (as IN-(1), VISIBLE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Invisible In*vis"i*ble, a. [F. invisible, L. invisibilis. See In- not, and Visible.] Incapable of being seen; not perceptible by vision; not visible. To us invisible, or dimly seen In these thy lowest works. --Milton. Invisible bird (Zo["o]l.), a small, shy singing bird (Myadestes sibilons), of St. Vincent Islands. Invisible green, a very dark shade of green, approaching to black, and liable to be mistaken for it.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Invisible In*vis"i*ble, n. 1. An invisible person or thing; specifically, God, the Supreme Being. 2. A Rosicrucian; -- so called because avoiding declaration of his craft. [Obs.] 3. (Eccl. Hist.) One of those (as in the 16th century) who denied the visibility of the church. --Shipley.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you describe something as invisible, you mean that it cannot be seen, for example because it is transparent, hidden, or very small. The lines were so finely etched as to be invisible from a distance... ? visible ADJ: usu v-link ADJ • invisibly A thin coil of smoke rose almost invisibly into the sharp, bright sky. ADV: ADV with v 2. You can use invisible when you are talking about something that cannot be seen but has a definite effect. In this sense, invisible is often used before a noun which refers to something that can usually be seen. Parents fear they might overstep these invisible boundaries... ADJ: ADJ n • invisibly ...the tradition that invisibly shapes things in the present. ADV: ADV with v 3. If you say that you feel invisible, you are complaining that you are being ignored by other people. If you say that a particular problem or situation is invisible, you are complaining that it is not being considered or dealt with. The problems of the poor are largely invisible. ADJ • invisibility ...the invisibility of women's concerns in society. 4. In stories, invisible people or things have a magic quality which makes people unable to see them. ...The Invisible Man. ADJ 5. In economics, invisible earnings are the money that a country makes as a result of services such as banking and tourism, rather than by producing goods. (BUSINESS) Tourism is Britain's single biggest invisible export... ? visible ADJ: ADJ n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Imperceptible, unseen, that cannot be seen, incapable of being seen.

Moby Thesaurus

atomic, behind the curtain, behind the scenes, camouflaged, concealed, corpuscular, covered, disguised, embryonic, evanescent, germinal, granular, hidden, impalpable, imperceptible, imponderable, inappreciable, indiscernible, infinitesimal, insensible, intangible, latent, masked, microcosmic, microscopic, molecular, out of sight, secret, sightless, subatomic, submerged, tenuous, thin, ultramicroscopic, unapparent, unappreciable, unbeheld, unbeholdable, undetected, undiscernible, undisclosed, undiscovered, undivulged, unexplained, unexplored, unexposed, unnoticed, unobservable, unobserved, unperceivable, unperceived, unrealized, unrevealed, unseeable, unseen, unsolved, unspied, untraced, untracked, unviewed, unwitnessed, veiled, viewless