Word.ws English Dictionary

obscure

Syllables: ob·scure/əbˈskjʊə(ɹ)//əbˈskjʊɹ/

obscure adjective: dark, faint or indistinct.

Adjective

obscure (comparative obscurer or more obscure, superlative obscurest or most obscure)

  1. Dark, faint or indistinct.
    • I found myself in an obscure wood.1892, Denton Jaques Snider, Inferno, 1, 1-2 (originally by Dante Alighieri)
    • His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 20:20
  2. Hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous.
    • The obscure bird / Clamoured the livelong night.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    • the obscure corners of the earth1606, John Davies of Hereford, Bien Venu
  3. Difficult to understand; abstruse.
    • an obscure passage or inscription; The speaker made obscure references to little-known literary works.
    • The lock was of a kind that Watt could not pick. Watt could pick simple locks, but he could not pick obscure locks.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC
  4. Not well-known.
    • Of all the medical monsters Peter Hotez could have set out to slay, the Yale University researcher could not have chosen a more wily and obscure villain than the hookworm.1996 October 6, William Hathaway, “PARASITE LINKS MEN IN DARING VENTURE”, in Hartford Courant, archived from the original on 08 Jul 2021
    • i need to be REALLY careful to not use any obscure words. otherwise my tweets might end up on a wiktionary page2024 August 4, @rainbowresort_, “Archived copy”, in Twitter, archived from the original on 05 Aug 2024
  5. Unknown or uncertain; unclear.
    • The etymological roots of the word "blizzard" are obscure and open to debate.

Verb

obscure (third-person singular simple present obscures, present participle obscuring, simple past and past participle obscured)

  1. (transitive) To render obscure; to darken; to make dim; to keep in the dark; to hide; to make less visible, intelligible, legible, glorious, beautiful, or illustrious.
    • They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's oak, with obscured lights.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • c. 1688', William Wake, Preparation for Death
      There is scarce any duty which has been so obscured in the writings of learned men as this.
  2. (transitive) To hide, put out of sight etc.
    • It has been little altered over the years save for the addition of a platform awning which rather obscures the arcaded entrance to the booking hall.1957 August, H. P. White, “The Tonbridge-Hastings Line and its Traffic”, in Railway Magazine, page 529
    • But Richmond[…]appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw, peeping around the massive silver epergne that almost obscured him from her view, that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that...1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) To conceal oneself; to hide.
    • How! There's bad news. / I must obscure, and hear it.1623 (first performance), John Fletcher, William Rowley, “The Maid in the Mill”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647...
    Antonyms:
    appear, show up

obscure meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

obscure in Hindi

dark, faint or indistinct
धुंधला dhundhlā
hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous
धूमिल dhūmil

obscure in Tamil

தெரிந்திராத, தெளிவற்ற, மறைவான

obscure in Marathi

obscure, abstruse
गहन gahan

obscure in Urdu

چھپی, غیرواضح, گمنام, خیرہ, محجوب, مبہم
More languagesFewer languages
obscure in Bengali
অকৃতনামা ôkritônama, অকৃতনামী ôkritônami, অকৃতনাম্নী ôkritônamni
obscure in Telugu
మసక masaka
obscure in Malayalam
മറഞ്ഞുകിടക്കുന്ന, അവ്യക്തമായ, വ്യക്തതയില്ലാത്ത, അറിയപ്പെടാത്ത
obscure in Kannada
ಮಬ್ಬುಗೊಳಿಸು, ಮಂಕಾಗಿಸು, ಪ್ರಕಾಶಗುಂದಿಸು, ಮಸುಕುಗೊಳಿಸು
obscure in Punjabi
ਅਸਪਸ਼ਟ ਕਰਨਾ
obscure in Odia
ଅସ୍ପଷ୍ଟ କରିବା
obscure in Sanskrit
तड् taḍ
obscure in Arabic
مُظْلِم muẓlim
obscure in Vietnamese
mờ mịt, tối tăm, tối nghĩa, ít người biết đến

Examples of obscure in a sentence

  • But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
  • I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity.1994, Bill Watterson, Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat, page 62:

All 40 example sentences with obscure

Synonyms of obscure

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

10 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of obscure

Forms of obscure

Adjective
comparativeobscurer
comparativemore obscure
superlativeobscurest
superlativemost obscure
Verb
third-person singular presentobscures
present participleobscuring
past participleobscured
pastobscured

Past tense of obscure: obscured

Origin of obscure

From Middle English obscure, from Old French obscur, from Latin obscūrus (“dark, dusky, indistinct”), from ob- + *scūrus, from Proto-Italic *skoiros, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃-. Doublet of oscuro.

Words formed from obscure

Words that rhyme with obscure

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about obscure

What does obscure mean?
Obscure means dark, faint or indistinct.
What is obscure in Hindi?
Obscure in Hindi is धुंधला (dhundhlā), धूमिल (dhūmil). See Obscure meaning in Hindi.
How do you use obscure in a sentence?
But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.
What part of speech is obscure?
Obscure can be an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce obscure?
Obscure is pronounced /əbˈskjʊə(ɹ)/.

Words near obscure in the dictionary

  1. obscurating
  2. obscuration
  3. obscurationism
  4. obscurations
  5. obscurative
  6. obscure
  7. obscure honeyeater
  8. obscured
  9. obscuredly
  10. obscurely
  11. obscurement

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: obscure (page history and authors); obscure (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); गहन (Marathi) (page history and authors); obscure (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); অকৃতনামা (Bengali) (page history and authors); మసక (Telugu) (page history and authors); obscure (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); obscure (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); obscure (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); obscure (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); तड् (Sanskrit) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-obscure.ogg.

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