Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To make so confused or opaque as to be difficult to perceive or understand: "A great effort was made . . . to obscure or obfuscate the truth” ( Robert Conquest).
- v. To render indistinct or dim; darken: The fog obfuscated the shore.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Wiktionary
- v. To make dark; overshadow
- v. To deliberately make more confusing in order to conceal the truth.
- v. computing To alter code while preserving its behavior but conceal its structure and intent.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Obfuscated; darkened; obscured.
- v. To darken; to obscure; to becloud.
- v. To confuse; to bewilder; to make unclear.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make obscure or unclear
Etymologies
- From the participle stem of (late) Latin obfuscare, from ob- + fuscare ("darken"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin obfuscāre, obfuscāt-, to darken : ob-, over; see ob- + fuscāre, to darken (from fuscus, dark). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“However, let's distract and obfuscate from the glaring flaws of the current administration and revel in the hate for an administration that is no longer in office.”
“And the prize for the most uses of the word obfuscate or derivatives thereof goes to…”
“You STILL haven’t stepped up and argued the points, why you obfuscate is beyond me.”
“When it came to discussing facts, she seemed to obfuscate the issue (Sarah, if you're reading this, don't be embarrassed to look up "obfuscate").”
“I've just highlighted this post on Twitter and in my resource about How to write an Artist's Statement with the suggestion that it's absolutely essential reading anytime an artist feels tempted to "obfuscate"!”
“Also, good use of the word obfuscate … and the Marxist stuff … but I know what obfuscate means … and I don’t know anything about Marx himay”
Cooperative Blog » Blog Archive » Explaining the credit crisis
“If you want it can also "obfuscate" the variables which saves bandwith and as side effect make them harder to reuse (not something you'd want as open source developer).”
“Your email address will be hidden, but it is still recommended that you "obfuscate" your email address, or simply leave a homepage URL.”
“So, if indeed we are called to participate, to care for and protect water and climate and all living things as God's will, why then do we obfuscate and deny the research and science affirming positions quoted here?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘obfuscate’.
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Muse's tacet ,to learn
Music brings silence's to raging thoughts and temperament , calm, as it is our object of definite purpose.
tacet, cadence, tempo, treble clef, penultimate, lexicon, origin, orchestra, kantele, magus, eros, coalesce and 248 more...
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allover
reintegrate, spight, surveillant, harmonize, Colophon, workplace, bigoted, unsighted, bridgework, salutation, voltmeter, octane and 159 more...
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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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phrontistery - o
from phrontistery.info
oakum, oakus, oast, obambulate, obdormition, obduracy, obedible, obedientiary, obeism, obeliscolychny, obelize, obelus and 504 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august and 401 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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GRE
GRE words from Princeton Review guide, ETS GRE Book from 2010 (for revised test), New Yorker/NY Times articles.
sycophant, obsequious, volubility, equanimity, enervate, effrontery, impertinent, platitude, impudence, quiescent, propitiate, equivocate and 124 more...
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Neuro-logical ??
The discovering of neuro and phago-cyte nano-engineered biology...
opsoclonus, opsomania, speciefic, opsonin, reveal, parsec, stereopsis, scarious, ablative absolute, presage, requisitory, nuance and 58 more...
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Words For Novel
viridity, effigy, paragon, congested, acrid, lilting, clandestine, plethora, accolade, sardonic, naïve, reckoning and 285 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for obfuscate.
jwjarvis the thesaurus is pretty mediocre. not even illuminate for an antonym. who's in charge of it? how can we help improve it? Nov 18, 2010
choregurl "They don't want you to know that, so they obfuscate the debate by fabricating a disinformation campaign."
From a blog by Rep. Jim McDermott
The Huffington Post article dated August 12, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-jim-mcdermott/he-neglected-to-tell-you_b_257472.html Aug 13, 2009
bmevans "And late at night my memory obfuscates my line of sight"
--Girlyman, "This is Me" (2004) Mar 25, 2008
victoriapl "Mulder, not everything is a labyrinth of dark conspiracy and not everybody is plotting to deceive, inveigle and obfuscate."
X-files episode "Teliko" Dec 2, 2007