obscurity
noun
Simple meaning
Being indistinct or indefinite for lack of adequate illumination.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhbskyooruhteeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əbskˈjʊɹəti
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The state of being indistinct or indefinite for lack of adequate illumination
The state of being unknown; a thing that is unknown.
The quality of being unclear or abstruse and hard to understand
The quality of being difficult to understand; a thing that is difficult to understand.
literary
Darkness; the absence of light.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The state of being indistinct or indefinite for lack of adequate illumination
Used this way, obscurity is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use obscurity
- “He worked in obscurity for many years.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.