Word.ws English Dictionary

Captain Obvious

/ˌkæptɪn ˈɒbviəs/US/ˌkæptən ˈɑbviəs/

Captain Obvious noun: someone who makes superfluously obvious statements or who has just made one.

Noun

Captain Obvious (plural Captains Obvious)

  1. (derogatory, humorous, sarcastic, usually) Someone who makes superfluously obvious statements or who has just made one.
    • Thank you, Captain Obvious!
    • "But you're a girl," the guy said in surprise. This guy was getting on my nerves. "You are Captain Obvious, aren't you?" I shot back.1994, L. E. Blair, Drummer Girl (Girl Talk series, vol. 12), Golden Books Publishing, →ISBN, page 33

Examples of Captain Obvious in a sentence

  • Text links, by their very nature, contain text (thank you, Captain Obvious).1995, Rob Stokes and the Minds of Quirk, eMarketing, Рипол Классик, →ISBN, page 82:
  • The larger of the two specifications is known as Wide SCSI-2 because it's wider (Captain Obvious rides again).1998, David Groth, A+: Core Module Study Guide, Sybex, →ISBN, page 189:
  • The Qiana-wearing slacker next to me poked me on the shoulder and said, "We totally knew it was you in the bathroom!" Well, thank you, Captain Obvious, I thought.2002, Cathryn Michon, The Grrl Genius Guide to Life, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 145:
  • No, I'm not playing Captain Obvious here, but there is a certain way to hold a DV camera to avoid jittery movement.2002, Tee Morris, Steve Oakley, Premiere 6.5 Power!, Thomson Course Technology, →ISBN, page 240:

Synonyms of Captain Obvious

Forms of Captain Obvious

pluralCaptains Obvious
alternative form (informal)Cap'n Obvious

Origin of Captain Obvious

The title was humorously given to a U.S. Army veteran in 1926, but did not become popular until the early 1990s.

Questions about Captain Obvious

What does Captain Obvious mean?
Captain Obvious means someone who makes superfluously obvious statements or who has just made one.
How do you use Captain Obvious in a sentence?
Text links, by their very nature, contain text (thank you, Captain Obvious).
What part of speech is Captain Obvious?
Captain Obvious is a noun.
How do you pronounce Captain Obvious?
Captain Obvious is pronounced /ˌkæptɪn ˈɒbviəs/ (UK).
What is the plural of Captain Obvious?
The plural of Captain Obvious is Captains Obvious.

Words near Captain Obvious in the dictionary

  1. captain generals
  2. Captain Hindsight
  3. Captain Hook
  4. Captain Kirk
  5. Captain Kirks
  6. Captain Obvious
  7. captain of industry
  8. captain of sea and war
  9. Captain Planet
  10. Captain Queeg
  11. Captain Queegs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Captain Obvious (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Captain Obvious.wav.

Cite this entry: “Captain Obvious.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/captain_obvious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.