# obscure

Pronunciation: say "uhb-SKYOOR" US /əbˈskjʊɹ/, UK /əbˈskjʊə(ɹ)/

## Adjective

1. Not well known; heard of by few people.
   - Simple: Not known by many people.
   - _The prize went to an obscure poet who had published only in small magazines._
   - _He spent ten years researching one of the most obscure composers of the eighteenth century._
3. Not clear; difficult to understand, explain, or know for certain.
   - Simple: Not clear, so it is hard to understand or to know for sure.
   - _The cause of the fire remains obscure, though investigators suspect faulty wiring._
   - _How the painting ended up in a farmhouse attic is still obscure._
4. Not readily visible, whether concealed or simply easy to overlook.
   - Simple: Hidden away, or not easy to notice.
   - _The spare key was kept in an obscure crack behind the drainpipe._
   - _The rebels made their camp in an obscure fold of the hills where no patrol would spot it._
5. Dark or dim, or faint and hard to make out.
   - Simple: Dark, or hard to see clearly.
   - _In the obscure light of the storeroom, she could barely read the labels._
   - _An obscure figure stood at the far end of the platform, half lost in the steam._

## Verb

2. To hide something or make it dark or dim, or to make it less visible, understandable, legible or glorious.
   - Simple: To hide something, or to make it harder to see or understand.
   - _Heavy fog obscured the runway lights, and several flights were delayed._
   - _Long footnotes and side issues obscure the report's main argument._

## Verb

6. To conceal oneself; to hide. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To hide yourself so that others cannot see you.

## Origin

Latin obscūrus ("dark, dusky, indistinct"), built from ob- and *scūrus, goes back through Proto-Italic *skoiros to Proto-Indo-European. It passed into Old French as obscur and into Middle English as obscure. Oscuro is a doublet.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/obscure (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).