adjective
-
easy to see or understand; evident
-
exhibiting motives, feelings, intentions, etc, clearly or without subtlety
-
naive or unsubtle
the play was rather obvious
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obsolete being or standing in the way
Related Words
See apparent.
Other Word Forms
- nonobvious adjective
- nonobviously adverb
- nonobviousness noun
- obviously adverb
- obviousness noun
- overobvious adjective
- preobvious adjective
- preobviously adverb
- preobviousness noun
- unobvious adjective
- unobviously adverb
- unobviousness noun
Etymology
Origin of obvious
First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin obvius “in the way, lying in the path,” equivalent to ob- ob- ( def. ) + vi(a) way 1 ( def. ) + -us, adjective suffix ( -ous ( def. ) )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The simplest changes the author recommends now are putting decals—all but invisible to us but obvious to birds—on windows and not letting your cat venture out unsupervised.
Some might see that statement as platitudinous - obvious - but he's viewed by those I spoke to as having been a success at the big tech firm.
From BBC
‘Without commenting on my obvious stupidity, how do I recover from this?’
From MarketWatch
As well as the obvious emotional ties, Bellamy had unfinished business.
From BBC
So AI will favor sites that add exactly that kind of contextual information to product listings—even if it seems really obvious.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
