Arcane

//ɑɹˈkeɪn// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Understood by only a few.

    "arcane rituals"

  2. 2
    Obscure, mysterious. broadly

    "arcane origins"

  3. 3
    Requiring secret or mysterious knowledge to understand.

    "1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 67, The Renaissance Episteme (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN A “signature” was placed on all things by God to indicate their affinities — but it was hidden, hence the search for arcane knowledge. Knowing was guessing and interpreting, not observing or demonstrating."

  4. 4
    Extremely old (e.g. interpretation or knowledge), and possibly irrelevant.

    "an arcane law"

Adjective
  1. 1
    requiring secret or mysterious knowledge wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
esotericreconditeesotericenigmaticreconditeabstract

Example

More examples

"Nowadays, the fourteenth century's debate about the Eucharist sounds completely arcane."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin arcānus (“hidden, secret”), from arceō (“to shut up, enclose”); cognate with Latin arca (“a chest”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.