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abstruse

[ ab-stroos ]
/ æbˈstrus /
SEE SYNONYMS FOR abstruse ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

hard to understand; recondite; esoteric: abstruse theories.
Obsolete. secret; hidden.

Content related to abstruse

What Does “FICO” Stand For?When was the last time you ordered a credit report? The paper document is abstruse enough, but you have to maneuver through the morass of oddly-named companies that produce them — Equifax, Experian, TransUnion and more. The process is abstract, but the results are concrete. There’s some new, and bad, news about those infamous numbers. More than a quarter of Americans now have scores of 599 or lower. …
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What Does “Sophomore” Mean?Of the four tiers of high school, sophomore is the year that stands out as strange. Freshman, junior, and senior are relatively clear monikers for their associated levels, and it’s funny that in school, the place where you are most expected to know the how and why of everything, second-year students are called by a term whose roots are abstruse. Then there is the problem …
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Words related to abstruse

perplexing, esoteric, abstract, complex, complicated, deep, enigmatic, heavy, hidden, incomprehensible, intricate, involved, muddy, obscure, profound, puzzling, recondite, subtle, unfathomable, vague

Words nearby abstruse

abstractionism, abstractionist, abstractive, abstrict, abstriction, abstruse, abstrusity, absurd, absurd, theater of the, absurdism, absurdist

Origin of abstruse

1590–1600; < Latin abstrūsus thrust away, concealed (past participle of abstrūdere), equivalent to abs- abs- + trūd- thrust + -tus past participle suffix

OTHER WORDS FROM abstruse

ab·struse·ly, adverbab·struse·ness, noun

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH abstruse

abstruse obtuse
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for abstruse

British Dictionary definitions for abstruse

abstruse
/ (əbˈstruːs) /

adjective

not easy to understand; recondite; esoteric

Derived forms of abstruse

abstrusely, adverbabstruseness, noun

Word Origin for abstruse

C16: from Latin abstrūsus thrust away, concealed, from abs- ab- 1 + trūdere to thrust
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012