arcane

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While Damn Small Linux commands may be quite arcane, they can be very powerful.

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. adjective Known or understood by only a few: arcane economic theories. See Synonyms at mysterious.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (46)

  • There were schematics, as Delaney had promised--arcane, incomprehensible figures with foreign notations The house was dark but for the lamp on Wallace's desk. —  FSF,June2006
  • The topic is a bit arcane, and takes some explaining to get readers up to speed to appreciate it. —  Knight Science Journalism Tracker
  • Nothing arcane, all above board and, above all else, all-powerful. —  Halifax Live
  • How do you market one of the most ignored institutions in society while incorporating topics both diverse and arcane, esoteric and beloved, academic and entertaining? —  Madison.com - top
  • The Guardian runs approximately eight every Sunday, and this one -- as usual -- is interesting, arcane, and ripe for discussion. —  Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

esoteric ·  archaic ·  occult ·  magical ·  computational ·  cabalistic ·  recondite ·  mystical ·  mathematical ·  nautical ·  cryptic ·  age-old
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin arcānus, secret, from arca, chest.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Latin arcanus, hidden, from arcere, shut up, arca, a chest. Cf. arcanum.
 

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/ɑrˈkeɪn/
by American Heritage

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