Obtuse Meaning
/əbˈtjuːs/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjBlunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form.
adjBlunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form., Blunt, or rounded at the extremity.
Sentence Examples
When you think about it, it's all Kenny's fault for being so obtuse.
Pedants delight in being obtuse.
She complained of an obtuse pain in her back.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ student could not grasp the simple concept after many explanations.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He was being intentionally ____, pretending not to understand even the simplest instructions.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English obtuse, from Latin obtūsus (“blunt, dull; obtuse”), past participle of obtundere, from obtundō (“to batter, beat, strike; to blunt, dull”), from ob- (“against”) (see ob-) + tundō (“to beat, strike; to bruise, crush, pound”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewd-, from *(s)tew- (“to hit; to push”)). More at obtund.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"For we see a Feather or a Rush drawn along the Lip or Cheek, doth tickle; whereas a thing more obtuse, or a touch more hard, doth not."
— 1670, Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [Francis Bacon], “Century VIII”, in Sylva Sylvarum, or, A Natural History, in Ten Centuries: Whereunto is Newly Added, the History Natural and Experimental of [Life] and Death, or of the Prolongation of Life. […], 9th and last edition, London: William Rawley, →OCLC, paragraph 766, page 161:
"See then the quiver broken and decay'd, / In which are kept our arrows! Rusting there / In wild disorder, and unfit for use, / […] Their points obtuse, and feathers drunk with wine!"
— 1817, William Cowper, The Task, London: John Sharpe, page 58:
"Yet you do not brighten what would otherwise be dull, impart a keenness to the obtusest point, and diffuse a general lustre?"
— 1932, Ernest Bramah, chapter XV, in The Moon of Much Gladness: Related by Kai Lung, London: Cassell and Co., →OCLC; republished [s.l.]: Read Books, 2013, →ISBN, section IV:
"The Herb Pantagruelion hath a little Root somewhat hard and ruff, roundish, terminating in an obtuse and very blunt Point, and having some of its Veins, Strings or Filaments coloured with some spots of white, […]"
— 1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais]; [Peter Anthony Motteux, transl.], “How Pantagruel Did Put Himself in a Readiness to Go to Sea; and of the Herb Named Pantagruelion”, in The Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and His Sonne Pantagruel [...], volume II, London: Navarre Society, published 1921, →OCLC, book III, pages 57–58:
"If you put foure Spleets in a Hiue, then cut their backes, where they must leane one against another, to square angles, such as be foure in a circle: if but three, cut them to obtuse angles, such as are three in a circle: (you may readily try them, before you put them in, by Moulds made iust to those formes) and so will they stand close and firme together."
— 1623, Charles Butler, “Of the Hiues, and the Dressing of Them”, in The Feminine Monarchie: or, The Historie of Bees: Shewing Their Admirable Nature, and Properties, Their Generation, and Colonies, Their Gouernment, Loyaltie, Art, Industrie, Enemies, Warres, Magnanimitie, &c. […], London, →OCLC, chapter 3, section 11, footnote c; republished Mytholmroyd, U.K.: Northern Bee Books, 1985:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ student could not grasp the simple concept after many explanations.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He was being intentionally ____, pretending not to understand even the simplest instructions.