Obscure

English Meaning

Covered over, shaded, or darkened; destitute of light; imperfectly illuminated; dusky; dim.

1. Deficient in light; dark.
2. So faintly perceptible as to lack clear delineation; indistinct. See Synonyms at dark.
3. Indistinctly heard; faint.
4. Linguistics Having the reduced, neutral sound represented by schwa (ə).
5. Far from centers of human population: an obscure village.
6. Out of sight; hidden: an obscure retreat.
7. Not readily noticed or seen; inconspicuous: an obscure flaw.
8. Of undistinguished or humble station or reputation: an obscure poet; an obscure family.
9. Not clearly understood or expressed; ambiguous or vague: "an impulse to go off and fight certain obscure battles of his own spirit” ( Anatole Broyard). See Synonyms at ambiguous.
10. To make dim or indistinct: Smog obscured our view. See Synonyms at block.
11. To conceal in obscurity; hide: "Unlike the origins of most nations, America's origins are not obscured in the mists of time” ( National Review).
12. Linguistics To reduce (a vowel) to the neutral sound represented by schwa (ə).
13. Something obscure or unknown.