visiblevis‧i‧ble /ˈvɪzəbəl/ ●●○ W3 AWL adjective 
The outline of the mountains was clearly visible.visible to The sign was clearly visible to passing motorists. The comet is visible to the naked eye (=can be seen without using special equipment). Check the plant for any visible signs of disease.2an effect that is visible is great enough to be noticed SYN noticeable: There has been a visible change in his attitude.3someone who is visible is in a situation in which a lot of people notice them: highly visible politiciansCOLLOCATIONSadverbsclearly/plainly visible· The fracture was clearly visible on the X-ray.highly visible· Cyclists should wear highly visible colours.easily visible· By July 26, Mercury should be easily visible in the evening sky.barely/hardly visible· The parked car was barely visible in the darkness.phrasesvisible to the naked eye (=able to be seen without using special equipment)· The comet is now visible to the naked eye.a visible sign· He considered the expensive car a visible sign of his achievement.
WORD ORIGINvisible
Origin:
1300-1400 Latin visibilis, from visus; ➔ VISIONEXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- A single headlight was suddenly visible far below them.
- Black performers have become much more visible on Broadway.
- Detectives found no visible signs of a struggle.
- Only the top of his head was visible above the water.
- The bullet holes are still clearly visible in the walls.
- The church tower is visible from the next village.
- The marks are in faint gold, and hardly visible.
- The results of the housing policy are clearly visible.
- The stars were barely visible that night.
- These stars are barely visible to the naked eye.
- Trim any visible fat before frying the meat.
- He lit the cigarette, keeping both his hands high and visible.
- I could feel the blood gone from my face and I knew that my panic was visible.
- No solar eclipses will be visible from the United States in 1996, and only two will be visible from Earth.
- No stitching is visible from the right side.
- The impact on wealth distribution was already visible by the end of 1992, as Table 8-7 shows.
- The other important but less visible change is that those who operate the robots and computers are part-time women workers.
- The stages overlap with each other and the process is both continuous and deliberately visible.
Longman Language Activatorany one of the people in a group or in the world
to start to be seen or to suddenly be seen: · A face appeared at the window.appear from: · The manager suddenly appeared from his office.appear from behind/under etc: · A spider appeared from under the sofa.· Lois was about to knock when a woman appeared from around the side of the house.appear out of nowhere (=suddenly appear): · The dog appeared out of nowhere and began running alongside me.
to gradually start to be able to be seen - use this when you just start to see something, especially when it looks very small and difficult to see: · We had been on the boat for several hours when I noticed the coastline slowly becoming visible.· As the fog became thinner, the edges of buildings slowly became visible.
if something comes into view/sight , you can see it as you get closer to it or it gets closer to you - use this about things that are far away: · As the station came into sight, the train began to slow down.· Astronomers say that over the next few weeks the comet will be coming into view.
if the sun, the moon, or a star comes out , it appears in the sky: · The moon came out from behind a cloud.· As the sky grew darker, the stars came out one by one.
especially written to come out from a room, building or other enclosed space and start to be seen: emerge from: · Baxter emerged from the building and walked across the parking lot to a waiting car.· Brian, emerging from the bathroom, heard his wife speaking to someone at the front door.· At the airport, people stood behind a metal fence waiting for passengers to emerge from customs.
if a large person or thing looms or looms up , they suddenly appear in a way that makes you feel nervous or frightened, especially in a situation in which you cannot see clearly: · As we rounded the curve, the mountain loomed up in front of us.· They were walking through the alley when a man suddenly loomed out of the shadows.
to appear again after a short time of not being there or not being able to be seen: · Baines went back inside and reappeared a few moments later carrying an umbrella.
when something can be seen · Detectives found no visible signs of a struggle.visible from/at/above etc · The church tower is visible from the next village.· Only the top of his head was visible above the water.· A single headlight was suddenly visible far below them.· Trim any visible fat before frying the meat.clearly visible · The bullet holes are still clearly visible in the walls.barely/hardly/scarcely visible · The marks are in faint gold, and hardly visible.visible to the naked eye (=visible without using special instruments to help you) · These stars are barely visible to the naked eye.
how far it is possible to see, especially when this is affected by weather conditions - used especially in weather reports: · Fog has reduced visibility to under 20 metres.good visibility (=when the air is clear so you can see a long distance): · Conditions are perfect for the yacht race; there is a light wind and visibility is good.poor/zero/low visibility (=when it is difficult to see very far): · Poor visibility made skiing extremely hazardous.· Most modern planes can land in zero visibility.
if something or someone is in sight or within sight , you can see them from where you are: · The only building in sight was a small wooden cabin.· The boat was stopped by the US coastguard within sight of shore. · It was a glorious summer day, with not a cloud in sight.· It was late afternoon, and there wasn't a soul in sight.· Meredith looked around - there was no-one in sight.· The taxi driver was still nowhere in sight.come in/within sight of (=to come close enough to a place to see it): · It was several hours before the three men came within sight of the city.
if something shows , people can see it, especially when you do not want them to: · Don't worry about that mark - it won't show.· Your slip is showing, did you know?
if something or someone is in view , they can be seen from where you are and are not hidden by anything: · David pulled the blankets up so only the top of his head remained in view.· There were no buildings in view to suggest the presence of any humans.keep somebody in view: · Place the child's desk near the teacher's, so that the child can keep the teacher in view.
if someone or something appears , you begin to see them or you suddenly see them: · The stars appeared one by one in the sky.appear at/in/on etc: · At that moment, Kenny appeared in the doorway.· I heard a tap, and Lila's face appeared at the window.· A drop-down menu appeared on the screen, and I clicked 'Format'.appear from behind/under etc: · A man suddenly appeared from behind the bushes.appear (as if) from nowhere (=appear suddenly, without any warning): · Just then, Gillian appeared as if from nowhere.· A gray sedan appeared from nowhere in the fast lane.
if someone or something comes into sight , they move into a position where you can see them: · The crowd cheered as the President's motorcade came into sight.· I heard the splash of oars, and a rowing boat came into view.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRYadverbs His voice was barely audible. The mite is just visible to the naked eye.
· The fracture was clearly visible on the X-ray.
· Cyclists should wear highly visible colours.
· By July 26, Mercury should be easily visible in the evening sky.
· The parked car was barely visible in the darkness.
phrases (=able to be seen without using special equipment)· The comet is now visible to the naked eye.
· He considered the expensive car a visible sign of his achievement.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES His voice was barely audible. (=an effect that you can clearly see)· He drank five beers, but they did not seem to have any visible effect on him.
The mite is just visible to the naked eye. (=one that people can see clearly)· Kim received the news without showing any visible sign of emotion.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· The footprints at sites 8 and 9 disappear very slowly; digestion products are barely visible even 30 minutes after mixing.· At night, the light of candles and hanging lamps rose into the darkness so the high beamed ceiling was barely visible.· The neon lights outside were barely visible through the sheen of condensation coating the inside of the cafe window.· Mostly black on black, its central diamond is traced in faint gold and barely visible.· From base camp the summit was barely visible, so on sighting the route our surprise was all the greater.· Jim kindled the Easter fire, a blue flame at first barely visible above the silver rim of a white bowl.· Up on the plain the driver appears to move arbitrarily between barely visible tracks.· Jean Piaget is barely visible amid piles of clutter.
· Yes, it was clearly visible.· Against the pale background the plankton which swarmed on the surface were clearly visible.· Here, in highly compelling fashion, the social convenience of the contented replaces the clearly visible reality.· And it was no longer a point of light; it had begun to show a clearly visible disk.· At one level, there is a clearly visible opposition between a historical and an existential perspective.· Their blunt heads were clearly visible as they loitered, grey-black like bow-headed submarines.· The stone walls of the bottom part of the wall section are clearly visible but most of the structure is ivy-clad.· Stick-mikes are the all-rounders of the audio world, but when used for video their size makes them clearly visible on shot.
· It is easily visible with the naked eye, and binoculars give it a vaguely cruciform appearance.· But it will remain easily visible until mid-April, and perhaps later.· It is easily visible from Hilo in Hawaii, where the latitude is 20 degrees north.· Hale-Bopp and the waxing crescent will be easily visible in the Western sky after sunset Thursday and Friday.· One of the advantages of the belt is that the animals are easily visible from afar in the gloom in rough country.· It is because at this time the warning light is more easily visible in the twilight than in the daylight.· An architecture is therefore required which will allow flexible and easily visible control over these interfaces.· Men had to wear rough cotton shirts and white corduroy jackets and trousers, to be easily visible.
· Now, with the tide driven high by the approaching storm, it was hardly visible.· Its much longer history before the 1880s is hardly visible.· Vitali wore a black tunic stitched with purple runes which were hardly visible.· There's a slight rash on your chest, hardly visible.· The company also plans to landscape the site so it would be hardly visible from Clacton and Little Clacton.· Jessie was small and hunched, like a white-haired mouse, hardly visible beneath the garments she carried.
· It is highly visible, but there is an enormous mass of activity underneath.· A television-led democracy too readily will sacrifice important long-term interests for highly visible short-term gains, it is argued.· The 1950s was a period when state intervention in childhood was highly visible.· A few people carefully chosen, highly visible, whose deaths might be noticed.· But why can't you get something as waterproof and practical in highly visible colours?· Those highly visible operations, which featured heavily armed government forces using aggressive pressure tactics, ended in deadly violence.· Unemployment in the 1920s and 1930s, partly through the types of demonstrations outlined above, was highly visible.· It is characteristic of most research writing that topic areas are set off, underlined or otherwise made highly visible.
· The outline of the junction was just visible.· We can see where the plate and the chair were set, the marks are just visible on the floor.· White water was just visible far below.· Something resembling hard wood floors is just visible beneath a veil of potting soil and foam rubber confetti.· There it is at last, a dimly lit porch, the number twenty-one just visible.· Above us the slabby face was just visible through wildly animated curtains of driving spindrift.· The mite is just visible to the naked eye and feeds on honey bees and their grubs by sucking their body fluids.· Under the left, just visible, was a minute puncture.
· The other important but less visible change is that those who operate the robots and computers are part-time women workers.· Cochran is considerably less visible in the Senate than either Lott or Nickles, and he is older.· Toolbar buttons are easily overlooked as they are less visible.· A less visible innovation is a shock absorber-like base isolation system intended to protect the building from major damage in future earthquakes.· The poisons it contained were less visible now.· All cart paths have been redone in concrete, and some have been repositioned to be less visible.· The real danger in a public school is less visible and less visibly offensive.
· Surely a flashing red light would be far more visible in a tunnel than a static light?· And there are more visible examples.· Patterned sampling erodes the field man's personal discretion while it offers a more visible index of activity for the organization.· Nowhere is the impact of religion on sports more visible than in football.· Candidates became steadily more visible day by day throughout the campaign, however.· Harborlights Pavilion, more visible in its second year, enjoyed a 50 percent sales jump, according to promoter Don Law.· By those measures of visibility, national politicians were much more visible than local candidates from the start.· It was an attempt to make them more visible, more vocal.
· Windows does the most visible part of the job OS/2 was designed to do.· As the most visible and voluble owner in the National Football League, Jones has more than his share of detractors.· Those countries where public attitudes are most tolerant are those where homosexuals are most visible, and gay groups most active.· When a church is in her infancy there will be the most visible signs of growth, as with a child.· The new assault on the professions is most visible in health care.· These are most visible when ducal retainers stood surety for each other.· In their most visible work, astronauts will let loose a retrievable satellite carrying a coffin-sized inflatable antenna.
· Obviously this is the reason why the people concerned were all so visible to each other.· It has recently become an issue because it is so visible and entirely unregulated.· The sky was so clear and the stars so visible that the earth could almost be seen turning.
· The dark shape was still visible against a background of dimly lit beams.· The original sign formed in sea-shells is still visible beside the track.· The paint is equally eye-catching-though not much of the bodywork is still visible under all that hair.· The wounds were still visible in 1922.· Underlying them, of course, were attitudes and principles still visible and audible half a century later.· Some of them still visible in the morning.· Stephen envied the innocence still visible beneath the strain that showed in Weir's open features.· The remains of the blowing house, with the bricked-up water wheel aperture, is still visible.
· Revenue Revenue generation should be an obsession with every single company employee Revenue is very visible.· He sent a very visible warning message that taking on a president is not to be lightly done.· Even if paid in instalments it was very visible.· We must have been very visible upon the parapet.· Some aspects of travellers' lives, of the collective context in which individual problems arise, can be very visible.
NOUN· The other important but less visible change is that those who operate the robots and computers are part-time women workers.· The biggest visible changes will probably be seen in television programming.· The visible changes which this programme creates have some positive effects on women's place in the discipline.· Then, without a visible change of mood, he became inscrutable.· Then, with a visible change of heart, she carefully smoothed it out again.
· The restoration debate starts from the assumption that art is immortal visible evidence of historical and cultural greatness.· Many kinds of pollution provide visible evidence of their presence.· So now, save for a few interesting mounds in the field, there is no visible evidence of its existence.· If we get it right, displays will be about the only visible evidence of high technology.· On identity, the outward and visible evidence of regional flags, institutions and bureaucracies is everywhere.· It must rely on visible evidence of the presence or absence of a private condition.
· Red has the longest wavelength of visible light, and violet the shortest.· Infrared cooling of the surface is also inhibited, but heat radiation is less affected by dust than visible light.· To the joy of jewellers visible light has too low a frequency to excite an electron in a perfect diamond.· This gas absorbs visible light so well that plants could not photosynthesize even if they somehow retained their leaves.· Light is produced primarily by the phosphor coating converting short-wave radiation to visible light.· Flashing blue lights, such as those described, are bioluminescence, which is visible light made by living organisms.· Because the sandwich is only a few angstroms thick it transmits visible light - but it reflects longer wavelength heat radiation.· Since Renaissance times, clear glass has been fashioned into prisms, mirrors and lenses that diffract and focus visible light.
· Distributes or displays to another person any writing, sign or other visible representation, should all be given their ordinary meanings.
· These changes in facial colour are the most visible sign that you are reacting to each other.· Terry had the desire to see how they had been affected, or for any visible signs of compulsion.· When a church is in her infancy there will be the most visible signs of growth, as with a child.· The visible signs of this malaise included the loss of inner-city population and jobs and the deterioration of inner-city housing.· There is no visible sign of rancour at the curious lifestyle imposed on her; she appears placidly resigned to her fate.· The most visible signs of a growing revivalist spirit appeared in the ministry of James McGready in Kentucky.· Funeral furnishing was a trade in which the outward and visible signs of his merchandise helped to advertise his craft.· But now, any visible signs of success were few and far between.
· The electronic bands in the visible spectrum are derived from d-d transitions.
· Though I can recall believing that when I was a member of the visible world.· At 81d is the corollary that souls partially pure remain in the visible world.· Through cannibalism the invisible terror of annihilation emerges into the visible world.
WORD FAMILYnounvisibility ≠ invisibilityadjectivevisible ≠ invisibleadverbvisibly ≠ invisibly
1something that is visible can be seen OPP invisibleclearly/highly/barely etc visible The outline of the mountains was clearly visible.visible to The sign was clearly visible to passing motorists. The comet is visible to the naked eye (=can be seen without using special equipment). Check the plant for any visible signs of disease.2an effect that is visible is great enough to be noticed SYN noticeable: There has been a visible change in his attitude.3someone who is visible is in a situation in which a lot of people notice them: highly visible politiciansCOLLOCATIONSadverbsclearly/plainly visible· The fracture was clearly visible on the X-ray.highly visible· Cyclists should wear highly visible colours.easily visible· By July 26, Mercury should be easily visible in the evening sky.barely/hardly visible· The parked car was barely visible in the darkness.phrasesvisible to the naked eye (=able to be seen without using special equipment)· The comet is now visible to the naked eye.a visible sign· He considered the expensive car a visible sign of his achievement.