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
Anxiety and depression are endemic, psychologists tell us, and why wouldn’t they be, when optimism and cheerfulness are taken as signs of obtuseness?
From Washington Post ● Mar. 31, 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
I had never encountered such obtuseness in a first-class hotel, and I told them so, but this only increased their inhospitality.
From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin
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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.
