obscure
/əbˈskjʊɹ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.85 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Dark, faint or indistinct.
adj
adj
Difficult to understand; abstruse.
adj
Not well-known.
Example Sentences
- "I found myself in an obscure wood."
- "His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness."
- "The obscure bird / Clamoured the livelong night."
- "the obscure corners of the earth"
- "an obscure passage or inscription; The speaker made obscure references to little-known literary works."
- "The lock was of a kind that Watt could not pick. Watt could pick simple locks, but he could not pick obscure locks."
Etymology
From Middle English obscure, from Old French obscur, from Latin obscūrus (“dark, dusky, indistinct”), from ob- + *scūrus, from Proto-Italic *skoiros, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃-. Doublet of oscuro.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *(s)ḱeh₃-, obscure, obscur, obscūrus, *skoiros
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əbˈskjʊɹ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
obscurer (comparative)
more obscure (comparative)
obscurest (superlative)
most obscure (superlative)
obscures (present, singular)
obscuring (participle, present)
obscured (participle, past)
obscured (past)