visibility

Meanings

1. 1noununcountable

   How far or how clearly a person can see, which depends on conditions such as light, fog or rain.

   Grammar: Uncountable: visibility was poor, not a visibility; often with good, poor or limited.

   Patterns

   • visibility is poor
   • visibility of 100 meters

   Heavy fog cut visibility to less than fifty meters on the highway.

   Pilots wait for better visibility before they land.

   Visibility was excellent, and we could see the mountains across the bay.

2. 2noununcountablefigurative

   The degree to which something or someone can be noticed, known about or recognized by the public.

   Grammar: Uncountable and often figurative: raise visibility, gain visibility.

   Patterns

   • visibility into something
   • increase the visibility of something

   The campaign aims to increase the visibility of local artists.

   Being on television gave the charity much greater visibility.

   Managers wanted better visibility into how the budget was being spent.

3. 3noununcountable

   The quality of being easy to see because of size, color or position.

   Grammar: Used for objects and signs: the visibility of a road sign.

   Patterns

   • the visibility of something

   Cyclists wear bright jackets to improve their visibility at night.

   The visibility of the warning sign was reduced by overgrown bushes.

   Reflective tape increases visibility in the dark.

Common combinations

poor visibility

Poor visibility forced the ferry to stay in port.

limited visibility

Drivers should slow down in conditions of limited visibility.

improve visibility

A clean windshield will improve visibility.

high visibility

Workers on the road wear high visibility vests.

raise visibility

The festival helped raise visibility for the small town.

Synonyms and how they differ

clarity

Clarity stresses how clear or sharp something looks or sounds and is not tied to distance or weather.

prominence

Prominence means being important or easy to notice in a group and is used mostly in the figurative sense.

exposure

Exposure in the public sense means being seen or covered by the media, and it is less about weather or distance.

conspicuousness

Conspicuousness describes standing out, often in a way that is not wanted, and is more formal and less common.

Opposites

Word family

visible adjective

able to be seen

visibly adverb

in a way that can be seen

invisible adjective

not able to be seen

invisibility noun

the state of not being able to be seen

vision noun

the ability to see

Commonly confused: visibility or visibleness?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “visibility”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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