obfuscate
/ˈɑbfəskeɪt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.28 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To make dark; to overshadow.
verb
To deliberately make more confusing in order to conceal the truth.
verb
To alter code while preserving its behavior but concealing its structure and intent.
Example Sentences
- "obfuscate facts"
- "Can weakness be really obfuscated?"
- "Before leaving the scene, the murderer set a fire in order to obfuscate any evidence of his identity."
- "When asked if Kelly could have been more transparent or truthful, that official wrote: “In this White House, it’s simply not in our DNA. Truthful and transparent is great, but we don’t even have a coherent strategy to obfuscate.”"
- "We need to obfuscate these classes before we ship the final release."
- "Also the vertues beynge in a cruell persone be nat only obfuscate or hyd : But also lyke wyse as norysshynge meates and drynkes in an sycke body"
Etymology
The adjective is first attested in 1487, in Middle English, the verb in 1536; either borrowed from Middle French obfusquer, offusquer, from Old French offusquer, or directly from Late Latin obfuscātus, offuscātus, the perfect passive participle of obfuscō, offuscō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from Latin ob- + fuscō (“to darken”). Doublet of dusken (“to darken, make obscure”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *dʰewh₂-, offusquer, offuscātus, ob-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɑbfəskeɪt/
- British English: /ˈɒbfəskeɪt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
obfuscates (present, singular)
obfuscating (participle, present)
obfuscated (participle, past)
obfuscated (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
obfuscated (first person, past)
obfuscatest (archaic, present)
obfuscated (past, second person)
obfuscatedst (archaic, past)
obfuscateth (archaic, present)
obfuscated (past, singular)