This adjective means visible or able to be seen, as opposed to invisible or merely conceptual. In Colossians 1:16, Paul describes Christ's creative work: 'For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.' The word marks the distinction between physical, material creation (visible things) and spiritual, immaterial reality (thrones, dominions, principalities). Christ's sovereignty encompasses both realms—matter and spirit, seen and unseen. The term emphasizes empirical, sense-perceptible reality in contrast to spiritual or intellectual realities.