I was pretty confused when I first saw phrases like “legible impact” and “legible goals”. I consider myself fairly well-read, and I had never encountered this usage outside of EA. I asked some other well-read non-EA folks, and they had the same reaction. In contrast, searching “legible” on the Forum produces 814 results, most of which appear to use this less common meaning.
I consulted several dictionaries, and here’s what I found:
Merriam-Webster
capable of being read or deciphered: “legible handwriting”
capable of being discovered or understood: “murder sweltered in his heart and was legible upon his face”
capable of being read or deciphered, especially with ease, as writing or printing; easily readable.
capable of being discerned or distinguished: “Anger was legible in his looks and behavior.”
Googling “legible definition”
(of handwriting or print) clear enough to read:”the original typescript is scarcely legible”
All three dictionaries have the same first definition, which is the primary usage in my experience. Definition 2 is sort of the way EA uses the word, but it is notable that both example phrases refer to things that can be read: “you could read murder on his face” / “you could read anger in his looks and behavior”. The Google dictionary doesn’t even have a second definition.
The Wikipedia article on legibility states that the word can refer to behavior or architecture in addition to written language, but makes no mention of this additional usage.
The book Seeing Like a Stateis notable for its unique definition of legibility, but this also isn’t really how EA uses the word.
The Google search results for “legible impact” and”legible goals” (in incognito mode) appear to mostly fall into three categories:
Other meanings (e.g., “legible impact font”, “legitimate goal” misspelled)
That said, I did find a few instances (1, 2) of this usage in a casual non-EA context.
Conclusion From what I can tell, usage of the word “legible” without any connection to literal or figurative reading appears to be quite uncommon outside of EA. (If anyone has a different impression, I would be interested to hear!) Given this, alternatives like “clear” and “understandable” (or even “verifiable”) may be more effective in many contexts at conveying the desired message, especially when speaking with non-EA folks. In fact, you could even say that those alternatives are more legible (but maybe you shouldn’t).
The way EA uses “legible” is not very legible
I was pretty confused when I first saw phrases like “legible impact” and “legible goals”. I consider myself fairly well-read, and I had never encountered this usage outside of EA. I asked some other well-read non-EA folks, and they had the same reaction. In contrast, searching “legible” on the Forum produces 814 results, most of which appear to use this less common meaning.
I consulted several dictionaries, and here’s what I found:
Merriam-Webster
capable of being read or deciphered: “legible handwriting”
capable of being discovered or understood: “murder sweltered in his heart and was legible upon his face”
Dictionary.com
capable of being read or deciphered, especially with ease, as writing or printing; easily readable.
capable of being discerned or distinguished: “Anger was legible in his looks and behavior.”
Googling “legible definition”
(of handwriting or print) clear enough to read:”the original typescript is scarcely legible”
All three dictionaries have the same first definition, which is the primary usage in my experience. Definition 2 is sort of the way EA uses the word, but it is notable that both example phrases refer to things that can be read: “you could read murder on his face” / “you could read anger in his looks and behavior”. The Google dictionary doesn’t even have a second definition.
The Wikipedia article on legibility states that the word can refer to behavior or architecture in addition to written language, but makes no mention of this additional usage.
The book Seeing Like a State is notable for its unique definition of legibility, but this also isn’t really how EA uses the word.
The Google search results for “legible impact” and”legible goals” (in incognito mode) appear to mostly fall into three categories:
EA-related
The author explicitly defines the term (example)
Other meanings (e.g., “legible impact font”, “legitimate goal” misspelled)
That said, I did find a few instances (1, 2) of this usage in a casual non-EA context.
Conclusion
From what I can tell, usage of the word “legible” without any connection to literal or figurative reading appears to be quite uncommon outside of EA. (If anyone has a different impression, I would be interested to hear!) Given this, alternatives like “clear” and “understandable” (or even “verifiable”) may be more effective in many contexts at conveying the desired message, especially when speaking with non-EA folks. In fact, you could even say that those alternatives are more legible (but maybe you shouldn’t).