Which term defines the level of difficulty in a written passage based on word length, sentence length, and grammatical complexity?

Which term defines the level of difficulty in a written passage based on word length, sentence length, and grammatical complexity?

• A. Phonology
• B. Phoneme
• C. Readability
• D. Stress

Answer: (C)

Readability is the level of difficulty of a written passage for readers. It gauges how easy or hard a text is to read based on linguistic features that affect decoding and comprehension, especially word length, sentence length, and grammatical complexity. When texts use shorter sentences, simpler words, and clearer syntax, readability rises, making the writing more accessible to a broad audience. Conversely, long, multi-syllabic words and dense sentence structures lower readability. Readability is often estimated with formulas that consider average sentence length and syllables per word to give a sense of how challenging a piece will be to read. The other terms focus on sounds and pronunciation in spoken language—phonology is the system of sounds, a phoneme is a distinct sound, and stress refers to emphasis in speech—not on how difficult a text is to read.

Readability is the level of difficulty of a written passage for readers. It gauges how easy or hard a text is to read based on linguistic features that affect decoding and comprehension, especially word length, sentence length, and grammatical complexity. When texts use shorter sentences, simpler words, and clearer syntax, readability rises, making the writing more accessible to a broad audience. Conversely, long, multi-syllabic words and dense sentence structures lower readability. Readability is often estimated with formulas that consider average sentence length and syllables per word to give a sense of how challenging a piece will be to read. The other terms focus on sounds and pronunciation in spoken language—phonology is the system of sounds, a phoneme is a distinct sound, and stress refers to emphasis in speech—not on how difficult a text is to read.