Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use obscure in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, verb

Obscure means dark, faint or indistinct. Example: “The etymological roots of the word "blizzard" are obscure and open to debate.”

Examples of obscure by meaning

adjectiveDifficult to understand; abstruse.

  • an obscure passage or inscription; The speaker made obscure references to little-known literary works.
  • Watt could pick simple locks, but he could not pick obscure locks.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC
  • 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

adjectiveNot 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

adjectiveUnknown or uncertain; unclear.

  • The etymological roots of the word "blizzard" are obscure and open to debate.

verbTo 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
  • 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

More sentences with obscure

  • That obscure author's fans were a nerdy crowd which hardly ever interacted before the Internet age.From the entry crowd
  • His journal provides a rare window into his otherwise obscure life.From the entry window
  • No-one could understand why she had hidden the shovel; her motives were obscure at best.From the entry motive
  • Artists obscure during their life often receive posthumous recognition, too late for them to enjoy.From the entry posthumous
  • His literariness helped him understand the obscure references in the book.From the entry literariness
  • After a couple of years without pruning, the shrub had grown overlarge and completely obscured the window.From the entry overlarge
  • In block ciphers, S-boxes are typically used to obscure the relationship between the key and the ciphertext.From the entry S-box
  • Knowing obscure 19th-century slang is peak nerd.From the entry peak
  • I'm also a fan of a really obscure book series, but that's a rabbit hole that we won't get into.From the entry rabbit hole
  • Some histopathologic details were artifactually obscured by the staining.From the entry artifactually
  • I've been hyperfixating on obscure progressive rock bands all month.From the entry hyperfixate
  • People who like obscure soft drink brands have it rough when going to restaurants, because nobody serves them.From the entry have it rough
  • Right then, that's the tea sorted. Anywhoodles, what were we saying about the proper way to alphabetize obscure Welsh placenames?From the entry anywhoodles
  • But stats like that obscure the fact that Northampton has long punched above its weight, culturally.2025 August 19, Jeanne Bonner, “This independent haven is a ‘tangibly different’ college town”, in CNN, archived from the original on 30…. From the entry Northampton
  • I preferred to be an obscure visitor in Shanghai with nobody noticing me.2023 May 4, Wenyan Lu, The Funeral Cryer, Atlantic Books, →ISBN. From the entry people mountain people sea
  • Well its obscure, its fun, and only a little more difficult than riding a unicycle.2021, David Bagley, “Making and Riding the Ultimate Wheel”, in SillyCycle.com. From the entry ultimate wheel
  • “Let’s get high!” say Quill, Saturday’s opening act and maybe the most obscure name on the bill.2019 August 15, Bob Stanley, “'Groovy, groovy, groovy': listening to Woodstock 50 years on – all 38 discs”, in The Guardian. From the entry wig out
  • It is mighty strange that two games are so interested in an obscure failed car.2016 September 20, Alice O'Connor, “[DMC] DeLorean DLC Rumbles Into Car Mechanic Simulator [2015]”, in Rock Paper Shotgun, London: Gamer…. From the entry meme on
  • Mahlab is a delicious but somewhat obscure spice that comes from the seed of a cherry tree.2015, Lindsay Herman, Herb & Spice Companion: The Complete Guide to Over 100 Herbs & Spices. From the entry mahlab
  • Obscuring the view of the Sweet Charity bridge was a “bigature” of the S.S.2015, Sam Gennawey, Universal versus Disney: The Unofficial Guide to American Theme Parks' Greatest Rivalry, Keen Communications, →ISBN…. From the entry bigature
  • In all present femora, sediment and other bones obscure the caudodistal part.2015 October 15, “Perinatal Specimens of Saurolophus angustirostris (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae), from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia”…. From the entry caudodistal
  • Teles suggests that our kludgeocracies be scrubbed clean of regulatory language that obscures rather than enlightens.2014 April 20, John Sweeney, “Fixes: Too many cooks spoil the soup and too many chiefs spoil the schools”, in Sunday News Journal, 39th…. From the entry kludgeocracy
  • It also has an obscure dispute with South Korea over a submerged rock that both claim.2014 July 10, “A look at China’s territorial claims”, in AP News, sourced from BEIJING (AP), archived from the original on 06 Jul 2025. From the entry Socotra Rock
  • I loved snooping through rows and rows of DVDs, finding strange and obscure movies time forgot.2013 November 6, Connor Simpson, “Blockbuster Is Dead. Long Live the Video Store”, in James Bennet, editor, The Atlantic, Washington…. From the entry time forgot
  • Kruban is a tidally-locked Venusian hothouse, its surface perpetually obscured by clouds of sulfur and carbon dioxides.2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Kruban. From the entry paradise
  • Spider had even laughed out loud when Guy chipped in with one of his obscure jokes.2010, Louise Pattern, Bad Money, page 113. From the entry extispicious
  • The exact cause remains obscure in the majority of these cases.2009, Kevin Corley, Jennifer Stephen, The Equine Hospital Manual, page 397. From the entry inappetence
  • As we all know, Joyce's magnum opi Ulysse and Finnegans Wake are commonly thought difficult and obscure.2008 January 17, "tcbevol...@yahoo.com", “The National Police Gazette”, in alt.fan.rawilson (Usenet), retrieved 21 Mar 2008. From the entry magnum opi
  • As a walk begins, so it ends, often on some obscure shore.2007, Michael Metras, Walking Life: Meditations on the Pilgrimage of Life, page 50. From the entry so is life
  • Gold names occur rarely in this period and their meaning remains obscure.2007, Jochem Kahl, »Ra is My Lord«: Searching for the Rise of the Sun God at the Dawn of Egyptian History, page 8. From the entry gold name
  • The voices of recondite writers quoted at length, forgotten storytellers weaving narratives, obscure scholars savaging one another.2004 Autumn, American Scholar, 129. From the entry recondite
  • The Myrmeleontiformia include antlions (Myrmeleontidae), owlflies (Ascalaphidae), spoon-winged lacewings (Nemopteridae), and two additional, rather obscure families.2004, Michael F. Whitimg, “21: Phylogeny of the Holometabolous Insects: The Most Successful Group of Terrestrial Organisms”, in Joel…. From the entry spoon-winged lacewing

Meaning of obscure

  1. adjective Dark, faint or indistinct.
  2. adjective Hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous.
  3. adjective Difficult to understand; abstruse.

Full definition of obscure

Questions about obscure in a sentence

How do you use obscure in a sentence?
Obscure is used as an adjective and verb. For example: “The etymological roots of the word "blizzard" are obscure and open to debate.”
What is a short sentence with obscure?
“Knowing obscure 19th-century slang is peak nerd.”
What does obscure mean?
Obscure means dark, faint or indistinct.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: obscure (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use obscure in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/obscure. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.