obtuseness
Americannoun
-
lack of quickness, alertness, or sensitivity in perception, intellect, or feeling, often arising from conscious or unconscious resistance.
What I find very tiresome is your willful obtuseness—your refusal to admit facts that are well-known or arguments you have lost.
-
the quality or degree of bluntness in physical form; lack of sharpness or acuteness.
Platybasia is an abnormal obtuseness of the basal angle of the brain.
-
the fact or quality of being indistinctly felt or perceived, as pain or sound.
The chief indication of deep-seated, pervasive inflammation seems to be the obtuseness of the pain.
Other Word Forms
- subobtuseness noun
Etymology
Origin of obtuseness
First recorded in 1640–50; obtuse ( def. ) + -ness ( def. )
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.
He plays the victim vividly and is quite adept at showing the obtuseness of a know-it-all.
From Los Angeles Times • May 9, 2024
One of the great Twitter accounts documenting this is called VCs Congratulating Themselves—a collection of venture capitalists posting with mind-blowing obtuseness.
From Slate • Nov. 10, 2023
The obtuseness of privilege — and the mania that aims to preserve it with absurd rituals and at unimaginable emotional cost — get a thorough workout, even in such a short play.
From New York Times • Mar. 10, 2021
For many viewers, it was "Home Alone" through which they were first introduced to Catherine O'Hara's unique style of comedic obtuseness.
From Salon • Dec. 10, 2020
Rebuffed, unhappy at the obtuseness of the very flat, the apple bumps the square and sends him aloft, fluttering and spinning into that mysterious third dimension.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
