obscure
Americanadjective
-
(of meaning) not clear or plain; ambiguous, vague, or uncertain.
an obscure sentence in the contract.
- Antonyms:
- certain
-
not clear to the understanding; hard to perceive.
obscure motivations.
-
(of language, style, a speaker, etc.) not expressing the meaning clearly or plainly.
-
indistinct to the sight or any other sense; not readily seen, heard, etc.; faint.
- Synonyms:
- veiled
- Antonyms:
- clear
-
inconspicuous or unnoticeable.
the obscure beginnings of a great movement.
-
of little or no prominence, note, fame, or distinction.
an obscure French artist.
- Synonyms:
- unknown, undistinguished
- Antonyms:
- conspicuous, noted
-
far from public notice, worldly affairs, or important activities; remote; retired.
an obscure little town.
- Synonyms:
- inconspicuous, secluded
-
lacking in light or illumination; dark; dim; murky.
an obscure back room.
- Antonyms:
- bright
-
enveloped in, concealed by, or frequenting darkness.
-
not bright or lustrous; dull or darkish, as color or appearance.
-
(of a vowel) having the reduced or neutral sound usually represented by the schwa (ə).
verb (used with object)
-
obscures,
present (3rd person singular)
-
obscured,
past participle, past
-
obscuring
present participle
-
to conceal or conceal by confusing (the meaning of a statement, poem, etc.).
-
to make dark, dim, indistinct, etc.
-
to reduce or neutralize (a vowel) to the sound usually represented by a schwa (ə).
noun
adjective
-
unclear or abstruse
-
indistinct, vague, or indefinite
-
inconspicuous or unimportant
-
hidden, secret, or remote
-
(of a vowel) reduced to or transformed into a neutral vowel ( ə )
-
gloomy, dark, clouded, or dim
verb
-
to make unclear, vague, or hidden
-
to cover or cloud over
-
phonetics to pronounce (a vowel) with articulation that causes it to become a neutral sound represented by ( ə )
noun
Synonym Usage
See mysterious. See dark.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
obscurationnoun
-
obscurenessnoun
-
subobscurenessnoun
-
unobscurenessnoun
-
subobscureadjective
-
unobscureadjective
-
unobscuredadjective
-
obscuredlyadverb
-
obscurelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
obscuresimple
-
obscuressimple
-
have obscuredperfect
-
has obscuredperfect
-
am obscuringprogressive
-
are obscuringprogressive
-
is obscuringprogressive
-
have been obscuringperfect progressive
-
has been obscuringperfect progressive
Past
-
obscuredsimple
-
had obscuredperfect
-
was obscuringprogressive
-
were obscuringprogressive
-
had been obscuringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of obscure
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Old French oscur, obscur, from Latin obscūrus “dark”
Explanation
If something is obscure, it's vague and hard to see. Be careful if you're driving in heavy rain — the painted lines can be obscure. Obscure comes from Latin obscurus, which can mean "dark, dim," "unclear, hard to understand," or "insignificant, humble." We tend to use obscure in the metaphorical senses: an obscure sound is unclear, an obscure village is hidden away in the countryside, and an obscure poet is little known and probably insignificant. Obscure can also be used as a verb. If you get really nervous when you speak during a debate, your embarrassing twitches and shaking hands can obscure your argument.
Vocabulary lists containing obscure
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
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The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 2
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Essential Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students, List 3
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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.
See Examples For:
They have varied from obscure Latin texts to cowboy novels.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
To be sure, with stocks near record territory on Friday, nervous investors had plenty of other things to worry about besides obscure technicals.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
That overwhelming amount of ordinary DNA can obscure the much rarer fragments associated with early cancer, making them harder and more expensive to find.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
For years, ISAs were an obscure technical layer beneath the semiconductor industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
Too much of it and we obscure the all-pervasive sense of contingency as well as the problematic character of the choices facing the revolutionary generation.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
Or as Folger’s artistic director, Janet Griffin, said to me one time, in reference to another of Shakespeare’s obscurer dramas, “Pericles”: “We are looking for what the play is saying to us today.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 27, 2017
I suggested moving to an obscurer table in the rear.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 19, 2010
There he demanded one of the obscurer works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
From Time Magazine Archive
Even her obscurer books have something about them that attracts popular attention, for more than most stylists, she writes about the common gist of things.
From Time Magazine Archive
Perhaps a search through the obscurer dramatists of the period might reveal other evidences of skepticism.
From A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 by Wallace Notestein
Feel grateful we live in a time when the obscurest, niche-iest, weirdest series you love got a chance to exist.
From Slate ● Dec. 20, 2018
"The obscurest epoch is today," wrote Robert Louis Stevenson.
From Time Magazine Archive
Coetzee calls him "the obscurest of the obscure, so obscure as to be a prodigy."
From Time Magazine Archive
Fancy our Prime Minister pouncing oppressively and illegally upon the very obscurest provincial paper going—say the "Land's End Farthing Illuminator!"
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 60, No. 373, November 1846 by Various
The obscurest among us has his place in the Divine plan, his lesson to learn, his work to do.
From John the Baptist by F. B. (Frederick Brotherton) Meyer
But his intimidating onyx armor obscures all that, much in the way Darth Vader’s helmet and cloak overcompensate for his shriveled form.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
But he believes the complicated ownership picture that now obscures who owns some of these buildings - or who the tenants are - is another difficulty in protecting at risk sites.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2026
This framing obscures the power imbalance between children seeking care and adults licensed to treat them.
From Slate ● Mar. 11, 2026
During a lunar eclipse, Earth’s shadow obscures the moon; in a solar eclipse event, the moon blocks the sun from view.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2026
Behind a patch of sand is a forest of vegetation so thick and so tall that it obscures the inland.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
When prices are bundled or obscured, consumers—in this case students—encounter fewer day-to-day reminders of opportunity costs or the economic realities that accompany virtually every decision in ordinary life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Trudy Crielaard, a chemistry teacher who lives near Utrecht in the Netherlands, recalled trying to watch the eclipse in 1999 when clouds obscured the sun’s corona.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
As time ticked by, slowly but surely the Moon obscured more of the Sun - acting like a dimmer switch as it did so.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
More than 90% of the sun was obscured by the moon - the most it has been blocked above UK skies since the total eclipse in 1999.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
It was then that Boaz got a proper look, less obscured by the shadows, at what now surrounded them.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
But for my money, there is too much tedious, mealymouthed chaff obscuring what should be her larger point.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
Now, policies are seemingly directed at obscuring conditions in the for-profit facility operated by The GEO Group.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
In total, more than 1.7 million satellites could soon be lighting up the night sky, obscuring or blotting out the view of ground-based telescopes.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
The results suggest that salt clouds are obscuring deeper layers of the atmosphere and influencing the light that ultimately reaches JWST.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 28, 2026
His hair falls across his face, obscuring his eyes momentarily from view.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
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.
