Obscure Meaning
/əbˈskjʊə(ɹ)/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjDark, faint or indistinct.
adjHidden, out of sight or inconspicuous.
Sentence Examples
May I ask a few more questions about that point? It's a little obscure.
The meaning of this sentence is obscure.
The cause of the accident is still obscure.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ ancient language was understood only by a few specialized scholars.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The foggy weather served to ____ the view of the mountain peak from the valley below.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 20:20:
"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, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
"the obscure corners of the earth"
— 1606, John Davies of Hereford, Bien Venu:
"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:
"The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. 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:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ ancient language was understood only by a few specialized scholars.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The foggy weather served to ____ the view of the mountain peak from the valley below.