legibilityn.

1665 E. Waterhouse Gentlemans Monitor xlv. 482 That light in Heaven..giving their merits legibility and vindication in the deadest and dismallest night of Oppression & Misrepresentation.

1679 J. Goodman Penitent Pardoned (1713) i. iv. 105 The divine goodness did supply that defect, as to the greater lines of vertue and vice, by the plain legibility of his providence.

1722 A. Nicholas Compl. Writing Master 2 'Tis far from adding either Legibility or Gracefulness to them.

1775 R. Graves Whole Art Tachygr. viii. 41 When abbreviations are first attempted, be sure always to express the first word, or words, in every sentence, very plain, so as to render them distinct, and of an easy legibility.

1789 T. Holcroft tr. J. C. Lavater Ess. Physiognomy I. xxii. 212 The legibility, and the explicability, of the human countenance.

1812 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. 79 181 Perhaps they..should have been accompanied with an expurgatory index, pointing out the papers which it would be fatiguing to peruse, and thus decimating the contents into legibility.

1862 Lady Llanover in M. Delany Autobiogr. & Corr. 2nd Ser. III. 289 (note) A hand which for clearness, compactness, and legibility exceeded any writing the Editor ever saw.

1901 Inland Printer Apr. 41/1 So many experiments are on foot as to improving the legibility of standard roman.

1995 A. Douglas Uneasy Sensations p. xvii The eighteenth-century novel is much concerned with the definition, legibility, and control of the body.

2005 Irish Times (Nexis) 8 Feb. 13 There appears to be a serious concern with regard to the legibility of this candidate's handwriting and her own teachers seem to have difficulty reading her writing.