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
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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:
Unlike visible-light imaging, microwave measurements can penetrate cloud cover, making it possible to monitor the Arctic consistently even when storms or persistent clouds obscure the surface.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026
They want to expose the obscure operations, to implore users to reconsider their relationship with these platforms.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
She was inspired by a social-media post with research showing AI agents linked to OpenAI had secretly messaged each other using obscure German websites in May.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
With that, “Chronovisor” and its obsessed protagonist enter a trancelike, analog-heavy state in which obscure texts in myriad languages tease a concealed parascientific history of potentially great importance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
For some obscure reason he felt the need to be brutally honest; perhaps he had already begun preparing himself for what lay ahead.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
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
Financial thrombosis is not unknown as one of the obscurer forms of megalomania.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, June 2, 1920 by Various
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
Coetzee calls him "the obscurest of the obscure, so obscure as to be a prodigy."
From Time Magazine Archive
"The obscurest epoch is today," wrote Robert Louis Stevenson.
From Time Magazine Archive
Is it nothing to take a mirage for a landscape, nothing to be hoodwinked of your confidence, to see high noon dissolve into obscurest night, a diamond into pinchbeck?
From Eden An Episode by Edgar Saltus
On some smallest, obscurest occasion probably, when, the recognized form and the ignored spirit presenting themselves together, thy hospitable bosom received the one, and left the other to take care of itself.
From From the Oak to the Olive A Plain record of a Pleasant Journey by Julia Ward Howe
The generic disclaimer that the ad was paid for by the federal government obscures which agency might be responsible, Kappel said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Military authorities put effort into messaging that ultimately obscures responsibility and causality, and family members who speak out sometimes fear real repercussions for themselves and loved ones.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
There’s a certain philosophy to dressing the body in Japan where the clothing obscures the body.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 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
He stops so abruptly a cloud of dust temporarily obscures his feet.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
"We couldn't see pair density waves in our earlier data because of material impurities that obscured our data," Madhavan said.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
He wore a dark hoodie cinched around his face and a rubber mask that obscured everything but his eyes.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Within a minute, the report says, dense smoke had obscured the camera.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Investors have overreacted to energy-driven swings in inflation, in his view, and the slow-moving part of inflation has been coming down gradually, obscured by high-frequency moves in energy prices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
His face was obscured almost entirely by a huge beard and mustache, and a domed helmet with a point on top came down to his eyebrows.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
He feels he has no choice but to keep up with other dealers in his area, even if his competitors are obscuring fees and add-ons, he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
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
Sometimes Elizebeth also worked as a cryptographer, which meant that she was the one coming up with ways of obscuring the plaintext.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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