Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The principles or practice of obscurants.
- n. A policy of withholding information from the public.
- n. A style in art and literature characterized by deliberate vagueness or obliqueness.
- n. An example or instance of this style.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Opposition to the advancement and diffusion of knowledge; a tendency or desire to prevent inquiry or enlightenment; the principles or practices of obscurantists.
Wiktionary
- n. A state of opposition to human progress or enlightenment.
- n. Being deliberately obscure or vague.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The system or the principles of the obscurants.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a deliberate act intended to make something obscure
- n. a policy of opposition to enlightenment or the spread of knowledge
Etymologies
- From Latin obscűrans, present participle of obscűro ("cover, darken, obscure") + -ism (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Instead, our problem is becoming obscurantism, which is a deliberate hiding of the facts by vested interests who know they are injuring us.”
“Мракобесие is usually rendered as obscurantism, which isn't always a satisfying translation.”
“Economists strangely seem even more prone to this kind of obscurantism than the rest of the world.”
Insurance versus Charity, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“Cultural relativism undermines the moral certitude of our principal enemy, Catholicism (aka "obscurantism")”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“The mistake I made was to use the word 'obscurantism' for the common tendency among Orthodox to hold, in my words, that "nothing can be well studied while prescinding from divine revelation.”
“Sorcery, protection from sorcery, sorcery accusations, and spiritual healing were all relegated to the category of "obscurantism" and forbidden.”
“The initial imposition of a Bavarian administration soon after Independence, the effort to shed traces of 'obscurantism' and the 'barbarity' of Ottoman rule; the Western bourgeois invasion of local customs and traditions; the long-standing effort to reconcile the Ottoman past with the legacy of Greece as the centre of European civilisation; and the intense conflict between right and left visions of Greek society since the Second World War have all generated tensions about national identity that have often found expression through various treatments of the 'woman question'.”
Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity
“TIME magazine which has published numerous essays exploring the relationship between faith, prayer and healing says that even a couple of decades ago, the scientific community would not have dared to propose a double-blind, controlled study of something as intangible as prayer because the scientific temper is all about trying to ridding yourself of remnants of mysticism and obscurantism which is what many people think faith and prayer is – a lot of mumbo jumbo.”
“obscurantism" or "material opacity" which resists the pressure of the creative spirit.”
“However, this nature has been wrapped up in centuries of pain, of obscurantism, of great enigmas and contradictions of our own existence, of divinity and love.”
Global Voices in English » Brazil: Indian writers and poets on the blogosphere
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘obscurantism’.
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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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Collected Words - List 2
I've been saving these words FOR YEARS. Now, I've found Wordie
gasconade, zaccheus, spoor, precentor, bombazine, otiose, khamsin, bruited, viva voce, whilom, lenitive, ebullition and 244 more...
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Confusually
???????????????????
baffle, farrago, confound, befuddle, daze, disorient, discombobulate, stupefy, perplex, mystify, bewilder, boggle and 134 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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-ism's -logies
acosmism, absurdism, absolutism, ableism, aestheticism, alarmism, allotheism, anachronism, animalculism, analogism, animatism, animism and 464 more...
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Burroughs
Detestable words
purulence, bête noire, exigent, exculpate, desideratum, lucriferous, concomitant, pertinacious, pervicacious, gemütlichkeit, sublimate, sanfroid and 38 more...
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difficult words
ordure, tatterwallop, callipygian, odious, colophon, cynosure, hardener, emollience, valetudinarian, demonym, volage, polysemantic and 256 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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DEF's list
Obscure Words
obfuscate, harbinger, morose, meniscus, conspicuous, grandiose, cogitated, matron, erudite, oness, apothegms, assuage and 475 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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Nihilarity
Absurdity, dark art, radicalism, anger, tragic irony, and nothingness. Tee-hee!
nihilism, dada, futurism, rayonism, postmodernity, deconstruction, surrealism, existentialism, reductio ad absurdum, discordianism, operation mindfuck, amorality and 127 more...
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hagendas 2010
hove, replevy, atavistic, terpsichorean, shillelagh, weskit, viscera, caesura, defenestrate, lacuna, scrofulous, catercorner and 12 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for obscurantism.

bilby "All of this has occurred with the blessing of government officials. These officials have implemented policies of obscurantism and opposition to reform. Among the Ulema, those who refused to be co-opted or corrupted have been isolated." - letter to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, Usamah bin Muhammad bin Ladin, 1994.
Dec 13, 2007