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:
A dip on Ridgecrest Road south of Elmwood Drive can obscure vehicles from sight, Dailey said, likening pulling out into the intersection to “playing an old-school Frogger game.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
It suited them for talk around England's Elliot Anderson to obscure what they were thinking around initial midfield targets as they knew the Nottingham Forest man would be financially beyond their reach.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
When the second-largest U.S. bank discloses its quarterly financial results, analysts have to decipher the lexicon of CEO Brian Moynihan, riddled with obscure, archaic words like “gainsay,” “concomitant” and “fantods.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 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
The picture was still wholly obscure, but what I saw of it I didn’t like at all.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
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
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
There he demanded one of the obscurer works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
From Time Magazine Archive
Who would decide whether the obscurer passages should be understood according to the bare sound of the words, or if a more spiritual meaning were applicable?--Synods?
From The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli by Johann Jakob Hottinger
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
In the obscurest part of the church, after much seeking, two silken bags were discovered, which had carefully preserved the relics of St. Frideswide.
From Amenities of Literature Consisting of Sketches and Characters of English Literature by Isaac Disraeli
In the largest cities, in the obscurest villages, tears flowed from all eyes.
From The Branding Needle, or The Monastery of Charolles A Tale of the First Communal Charter by Eugène Sue
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 more than that, it obscures the reality and erases the history of transgender lives by diminishing the significant time, money, and effort many transgender people spend to align their body with their sex.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
Velvet wingback chairs flank a fireplace and a stained-glass window obscures the parking lot outside.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 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
It can be a cloud, a thing that obscures.
From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi
“Due to Defendants’ wrongful actions, Demon Hunter’s established identity is becoming increasingly obscured within recorded music, live touring and merchandise-related channels due to overlapping use by the KPop Demon Hunters brand,” the lawsuit states.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
The result is that the entire property is obscured from public view to a degree without precedent in recent history, according to Charles Birnbaum, a former National Park Service official.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
"Everything was foggy, you couldn't open the window and it stank," she said, showing a picture on her phone of an orange glow partially obscured by thick smoke clouds that had turned the air black.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 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
Her eyes shone like wet black jewels; the hoodie almost completely obscured her face.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
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
You are able to watch it more closely than you had when you entered, as there is no longer a crowd obscuring it.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
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.
