Word.ws English Dictionary

obstruse

Syllables: obs·truse/əbˈstɹuːs/US/əbˈstɹus/

obstruse adjective: abstruse.

Adjective

obstruse (comparative obstruser or more obstruse, superlative obstrusest or most obstruse)

  1. (dated, uncommon) Abstruse.
    • And what great advances and mighty progress are daily made in finding out obstruse secrets […]1775, “The Tutor”, in A Present for a Son, London, page 82
    • It is very clear that some readily understood method of acquiring the ability to use the mother tongue correctly, to supplant the present obstruse, hard to understand method, is eagerly sought by many[…]1877, S. S. Saul, The English Language: Suggestions for Its Correct and Fluent Use Without Technical Grammar, San Leandro, California, page 8

Forms of obstruse

comparativeobstruser
comparativemore obstruse
superlativeobstrusest
superlativemost obstruse

Origin of obstruse

An alteration of abstruse.

Words formed from obstruse

Words that rhyme with obstruse

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about obstruse

What does obstruse mean?
Obstruse means abstruse.
What part of speech is obstruse?
Obstruse is an adjective.
How do you pronounce obstruse?
Obstruse is pronounced /əbˈstɹuːs/ (UK).

Words near obstruse in the dictionary

  1. obstructors
  2. obstructs
  3. obstruency
  4. obstruent
  5. obstruents
  6. obstruse
  7. obstruser
  8. obstrusest
  9. obstrusive
  10. Obsts
  11. obstupefaction

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: obstruse (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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