Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or character of being readable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The property of being capable of being read, legibility.
  • noun The property of being easy or engaging to read.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From readable + -ness.

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Examples

  • But the reviewer is not asked to state whether he finds Mr. Hocking readable so much as to state the kind of readableness at which Mr. Hocking aims and the measure of his success in achieving it.

    The Art of Letters Robert Lynd 1914

  • It does not add to a writer's readableness if readers are pulled up now and again to wonder -- Why this distortion?

    "The phrasing is so awkward that you'd never come up with it spontaneously; thus, it's well-suited to an academic journal." Ann Althouse 2009

  • It is notable, first, for its inordinate length; second, for its readableness, considering the length and the depth of it; third, for its prodigal and barbaric display of learning; and last, because it is said to have had the effect of making the most indolent man of letters of the eighteenth century get up betimes in the morning.

    The Bibliotaph and Other People Leon H. Vincent

  • These little sketches have been written to supply what seemed to the author a real need, -- a volume which should give clearly, compactly, and with a fair degree of readableness, the stories connected with the surviving old houses of New England.

    The Romance of Old New England Rooftrees Mary Caroline Crawford

  • One of these was Mr. Patchett Martin, who, in a series of books, Deeds that Won the Empire, showed himself extraordinarily adept at carrying on the Macaulay tradition of readableness and picturesqueness in the handling of historical events.

    The Adventure of Living Strachey, John St Loe 1922

  • Both of these scholars spoke of its extreme freedom, but commended its readableness.

    The Translations of Beowulf A Critical Bibliography Chauncey Brewster Tinker 1919

  • The saving grace of the ballad measure is its readableness.

    The Translations of Beowulf A Critical Bibliography Chauncey Brewster Tinker 1919

  • E.P. Whipple, the Boston critic and essayist, when reviewing her poems, spoke of their “exceeding readableness”; and George Ripley, then of the New York Tribune, said:

    Memories and Anecdotes Sanborn, Kate, 1839-1917 1915

  • Many learned people seem to feel that the quality of readableness in a book is one which warrants suspicion.

    I. History as Literature 1913

  • This process, while greatly increasing the interest and readableness of the book, has left intact Smith’s main argument, which is here offered to the reader as admittedly the best foundation for the study of political economy.

    Introductory Note 1909

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