Obscure

//əbˈskjʊə(ɹ)//

Synonyms for "obscure" (599 found)

Ranked by relevance and common usage.

Closest matches (120)

becloud bedim cimmerian confuse enigmatic hidden incomprehensible unnoticeable unsung vague abstruse adiaphanous adumbrate aleatoric aleatory ambiguous amorphic amorphous amphibological anarchic

Show 78 more words

Verb(9 words)

becloud bedim bedarken befog bemist blot out blur cloud conceal

Adjective(12 words)

dark enigmatic mysterious recondite ;abstruse arcane blear caliginous chinese cimmerian concealed

Adjective(1 words)

apart

Strong matches (180)

Verb(5 words)

confuse fog haze over hide hide out

confused confusing cope corrupt cover cover up covered covert cowl crabbed cramp cryptic curtain dark dark as night dark as pitch darken darken over darkling darksome

Show 119 more words

daze dazzle dead of night deep deform deprive of sight devious difficult dim dim out disguise dismal disorder disordered disorderly dissemble distant distort distract attention from dodge double-edged double-faced doubtful dubious dull dun dusk dusky ebon ebony eclipse eclipsed encloud encompass with shadow enmist ensconce enshroud envelop equivocal equivocate erebus esoteric evade evade the issue excecate extinguish faint falsify far far-off fathomless featureless feeble fence film filmy fine fog fog up foggy foreign formless fuliginous fuzz fuzzy garble garbled general glare gloom gloomy gloss over gouge grumly half-seen half-visible hard hard to understand haze hazy hedge hid hide hit-or-miss hood hoodwink humble ignotus ill-defined illegible imperceptible impervious to light imprecise in a cloud in a fog in eclipse in purdah in the wings inaccessible inaccurate inchoate incoherent incommunicado inconclusive inconsequential inconspicuous indecisive indefinable indefinite indeterminable indeterminate indistinct indistinguishable inexact inexplicable inform inglorious inscrutable insignificant

Adjective(34 words)

covered crepuscular darkling darksome dense dern dim dimpsy dingy dull dusky esoteric fathomless fuliginous fuzzy gloomy greek hazy hidden ignote

Show 14 more words

ill-defined ill-marked impenetrable inapprehensible incognizable incomprehensible indefinite indistinct indistinguishable ineffable inenubilable inexplicable inscrutable insensible

Adjective(2 words)

dark hidden

Related words (299)

Adjective(65 words)

insoluble insolvable invisible knownless latent leaden lightless mirksome murksome murky muzzy mystic nonunderstandable obfuscated obfuscatory obscured obsolete occluded occult occulted

Show 45 more words

intangible intransparent intricate ironic isolated jumble jumbled kaleidoscopic keep from keep under cover knotty latent lax lay on lay over light little known lonesome loose low profile

Show 200 more words

low-profile lowly lumpen make blind make uncertain make unintelligible mantle mask mean merely glimpsed mess up minor misadvise misdirect miseducate misguide misinform misinstruct mislead misrepresent mist misteach misty muddle muddy muffle murk murky mysterious mystic mystical mystify mystifying nameless nebulous night night-black night-clad night-cloaked night-dark night-enshrouded night-filled night-mantled night-veiled nitpick no credit to nondescript nonspecific nubilate nubilous obduce obfuscate obfuscated obnubilate obscured obscurity obumbrate occluded occult occultate occulted odd opaque orderless out of focus out-of-the-way overcast overcloud overlay overshadow oversmoke overspread overtechnical pale palter parry perplexed perplexing pervert pick nits pitch black pitch-black pitch-dark pitchy prevaricate profound pussyfoot put on puzzling questionable quibble random rayless recondite remote removed renownless retired roiled roily scramble scrambled screen scum secluded secluse secret semivisible sequestered shade shadow shadowed forth shadowy shady shapeless shield shift shroud shuffle shy sidestep slur over smog smoke snow-blind solitary somber split hairs spread over starless stochastic strange strike blind subfusc submerge subtle sunless superimpose superpose swarthiness sweeping tenebrious tenebrose tenebrous tergiversate tough transcendent turbid twilight ulterior umbral unambiguous uncelebrated uncertain unclear undefined under an eclipse under cover under house arrest under wraps undercover underground undestined undetermined undistinguished unemotional unemphatic unfamed unfamiliar unfathomable unform unglorified unheard of unheard-of unhonored unilluminated unimportant unintelligible unknown unlighted unlit unnamed unnotable unnoted unnoticed unordered unorganized unplain unpopular unrecognizable unremarked unrenowned unshape unspecified varnish veil veiled weak whitewash wrapped in clouds

Adjective(5 words)

isolated unknown unnoticeable unsung vague

Verb(9 words)

keep a low profile lie low mist obliterate obnubilate occult overcloud secrete veil

Related word relations

OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.

11 relation types

More general

6 entries

alter change conceal hide modify reduce

Antonyms

4 entries

clear known well well known

Synonyms

13 entries

becloud bedim cimmerian confuse enigmatic fathomless hidden isolated obscurity occluded unnoticeable unsung vague

Related terms

4 entries

clare-obscure clear-obscure obscuration obscurity

derived

16 entries

obscurable obscure honeyeater obscurely obscurement obscureness obscurification obscurify obscurin obscurism obscurist reobscure semiobscure subobscure ultraobscure unobscurable unobscure

distinct from

2 entries

clear common

etymologically related_to

2 entries

scutum sky

has context

1 entries

linguistics

manner of

4 entries

change darken hide reduce

related to

15 entries

conceal dark darken difficult dim faint hidden hide inconspicuous indistinct obscuration obscurity sight understand well known

similar

13 entries

concealed confound confuse efface incomprehensible inconspicuous inglorious invisible obliterate unclear uncomprehensible unconnected

Translations

150 translations across 31 languages.

Ancient Greek

1 entries

ἀσαφής adj (difficult to understand)

Arabic

1 entries

مُظْلِم adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

Bulgarian

4 entries

мрачен adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
неизвестен adj (not well-known)
неразбираем adj (difficult to understand)
неясен adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)

Chinese Mandarin

4 entries

不引人注意的 adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)
不清楚 adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
不為人知的 /不为人知的 adj (not well-known)
不起眼的 adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)

Czech

2 entries

nezřetelný adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
temný adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

Dutch

2 entries

duister adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
verborgen adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)

Esperanto

1 entries

obskura adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

Finnish

4 entries

huomaamaton adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)
hämärä adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
hämärä adj (difficult to understand)
obskuuri adj (not well-known)

French

4 entries

obscur adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
sibyllin adj (difficult to understand)
obscurcir verb (to darken, make faint)
obscurcir verb (to hide, put out of sight)

Georgian

1 entries

ბუნდოვანი adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

German

4 entries

dahergelaufen adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
dunkel adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
düster adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
finster adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

Hindi

2 entries

धुंधला adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
धूमिल adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)

Hungarian

4 entries

bizonytalan adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
homályos adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
homályos adj (difficult to understand)
ismeretlen adj (not well-known)

Italian

4 entries

confuso adj (difficult to understand)
indistinto adj (difficult to understand)
nascosto adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)
oscurato adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)

Japanese

2 entries

不明瞭 adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
朦朧とした adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

Khmer

3 entries

ព្រឹលៗ adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
លឹម adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
ស្រអាប់ adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

Korean

1 entries

애매한 adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

Latin

2 entries

ambiguus adj (difficult to understand)
caecō verb (to hide, put out of sight)

Macedonian

3 entries

замаглен adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
мрачен adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
нејасен adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

Māori

3 entries

rehurehu adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
tāpōuri adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
whakarehurehu verb (to darken, make faint)

Old Norse

1 entries

myrkr adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

Polish

4 entries

ciemny adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
mało znany adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)
niewyraźny adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
ukryty adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)

Portuguese

1 entries

obscuro adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

Romanian

4 entries

ascuns adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)
obscur adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
obscur adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)
retras adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)

Russian

4 entries

малоизве́стный adj (not well-known)
непоня́тный adj (difficult to understand)
нея́сный adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
нея́сный adj (difficult to understand)

Scots

2 entries

mirk adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
mirk adj (hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous)

Spanish

4 entries

conceptuoso adj (difficult to understand)
conceptuoso adj (not well-known)
obscuro adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
obscuro adj (difficult to understand)

Suku

1 entries

obscure adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

Swedish

1 entries

mörk adj (dark, faint or indistinct)

Vietnamese

4 entries

mờ mịt adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
tối nghĩa adj (difficult to understand)
tối tăm adj (dark, faint or indistinct)
ít người biết đến adj (not well-known)

Welsh

1 entries

astrus adj (difficult to understand)

Sample sentences

27 total sentences available.

Tatoeba + Wiktionary

May I ask a few more questions about that point? It's a little obscure.

Source: tatoeba (35180)

The meaning of this sentence is obscure.

Source: tatoeba (44123)

Modern poetry is often most obscure.

Source: tatoeba (239635)

The meaning is still obscure to me.

Source: tatoeba (249809)

Showing 4 of 27 available sentences.

More for "obscure"

Meaning Antonyms Sentences Word Type

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