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
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
That’s particularly necessary because Ken’s comic obtuseness and arc — as well as Gosling’s deadpan and boy-band dance moves — recurrently draw attention away from the actress and her character.
From New York Times • Jul. 18, 2023
During his year “in-country,” he witnessed truly surreal incompetence, obtuseness, irrationality, waste and lethal vainglory.
From Washington Post • Aug. 2, 2021
But sometimes, through reluctance or obtuseness, they seemed to have a hard time figuring out which seat was theirs.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
