obscurity
Americannoun
-
obscurities
plural
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the state or quality of being obscure.
-
the condition of being unknown.
He lived in obscurity for years before winning acclaim.
-
uncertainty of meaning or expression; ambiguity.
-
an unknown or unimportant person or thing.
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darkness; dimness; indistinctness.
noun
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the state or quality of being obscure
-
an obscure person or thing
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of obscurity
1470–80; late Middle English < Middle French obscurite < Latin obscūritās, equivalent to obscūr ( us ) obscure + -itās -ity
Explanation
One meaning of obscurity is nobody knowing who you are, and another definition is something that is hard to understand because it’s too complex or unclear. Obscurity is the opposite of fame, and living in obscurity means that nobody knows your name. Many musicians played in obscurity for years before becoming rock stars. The Latin obscurus means “dark,” which is where obscurity is found: in the dark where no one sees it. Something difficult to comprehend has obscurity, for example the obscurity of a medical magazine, or a complex poem that is full of literary obscurities, referencing other poems that no one has read.
Vocabulary lists containing obscurity
The Maze Runner
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Pygmalion
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"The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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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:
"We can now let these offenders die in obscurity while we forever remember and honour the victims," he said in a letter.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
His invention became an American triumph—but then it fell into obscurity.
From Slate ● Oct. 24, 2026
Asco’s work remained in relative obscurity — living in local mythology through storytellers like Ignacio — for decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
Live a calmer lifestyle, gel in obscurity, develop an edge, show up in January and make everyone east of the Mississippi look like clowns again.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
For Wotton has sunk into an obscurity even deeper than Temple’s.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The rise in popularity of revival screenings, which find audiences packing theaters in Los Angeles and around the world for acknowledged classics and rediscovered obscurities, has brought a joyful energy back to theaters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
They scour the internet to confirm obscurities, contact competition officials and high-school counselors and use a video-interview program to suss out students’ research claims.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
"It was a great song, and as a fan of 60s and 70s obscurities I knew it was unknown."
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2025
Check out some obscurities, and impress your friends and colleagues at holiday parties.
From New York Times ● Dec. 20, 2022
He checked her chemistry work and cleared up obscurities in the Restoration plays.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
