Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Not easily understood; abstruse. See Synonyms at ambiguous.
- adj. Concerned with or treating something abstruse or obscure: recondite scholarship.
- adj. Concealed; hidden.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Hidden from mental view; secret; abstruse: as, recondite causes of things.
- Profound; dealing with things abstruse.
- In botany, concealed; not easily seen.
- In entomology, said of organs which are concealed in repose: opposed to exserted. Specifically applied to the aculeus or sting of a hymenopterous insect when it is habitually withdrawn into the body.
Wiktionary
- adj. Hidden from the mental or intellectual view; secret; abstruse.
- adj. Dealing in things abstruse; profound; searching.
- adj. Difficult to understand; known only by experts.
- adj. Of a person: highly talented, a master of a field.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Hidden from the mental or intellectual view; secret; abstruse.
- adj. Dealing in things abstruse; profound; searching.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge
Etymologies
- From Latin reconditus ("hidden, concealed"), past participle adjective of recondo ("to put back, re-establish; to hide away"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin reconditus, past participle of recondere, to put away : re-, re- + condere, to put together, preserve; see dhē- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Meanwhile, the presence of Pietro d'Abano80 and Hippocrates reflects a special interest at Urbino in recondite principles of astrobiological medicine and its capacity to temper the constitutions of individuals.”
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro
“Park in miles, in yards, and in acres, and the number of head of cattle which could be accommodated therein if it were to be utilized for grazing -- that is, turned into grass lands; or, if transformed into tillage, the number of small farmers who would be the proprietors of economic holdings -- that is, a recondite -- that is, an abstruse and a difficult scientific and sociological term.”
“It's never helped me with the capital of Tajikistan or the definition of "recondite," but apparently it's got the goods on my hang-ups.”
“Like, the other day, in a social situation, somebody used the word "recondite" in conversation.”
“It served as a kind of recondite, East Village version of camp, classical Hollywood.”
“To him, a perfectly unintelligible will is a thing of beauty and a joy for ever; especially if associated with some kind of recondite knavery. ”
“For a popular treatment of the somewhat recondite underpinnings of this thesis, see R.”
“Yet the most recondite and potentially entertaining proposal in Scotland last week crept in unnoticed at the back door while everyone was trying to unravel Salmond's statutory orgy.”
The Guardian: Can we have a Stop Making Stupid Bills bill? | Kevin McKenna
“But there is laughter, too, in this little nation: complicated laughter, recondite and full of nuance, and adored — strangely — by Americans.”
“That's what the Eternal Word Television Network has accomplished in the three decades it's been in existence; put recondite dogma of the Roman Catholic Church just a click of the remote away from suburban Protestant infidels whose “ministers” allow them to take the entire summer off from church attendance!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘recondite’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 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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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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501
Classic
abhor, mirth, obtuse, iota, vex, irk, teem, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane and 401 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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phrontistery-r
from phrontistery.info
rya, rutilant, ruthful, rutherford, ruth, rusticity, rusticate, Russophobia, Russophile, russet, russel, rushlight and 514 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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Naresh_Gre2
convoke, cosset, coterie, declaim, distaff, doff, dovetail, droll, dyspeptic, egress, ersatz, euphemism and 108 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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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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Ballardian
All things descriptive from JG
Ballardoperation mindfuck, pataphysics, wahrheitssensible..., polymorphism, postprandial, covalent, stygian, lucus a non lucendo, kafkaesque, leitmotif, fugacious, ablate and 77 more...
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GRE
trope, surreptitious, tenet, insular, munificent, exegesis, limpid, acerbic, litany, cupidity, restive, protract and 105 more...
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pedantic words
Busie old foole, unruly Sunne,..Sawcy pedantique wretch, goe chide Late schooleboyes.
pedagogic, schoolmasterly, academic, bookish, donnish, dry as dust, dryasdust, pedantic, erudite, formal, inkhorn, learned and 65 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 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...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for recondite.
super-logos I recall this as an SAT-prep word Aug 15, 2008
chained_bear "...having sailed with Captain Aubrey since the turn of the century... he could now almost always discriminate between larboard and starboard: he prided himself extremely on his acquaintance with fore and aft and some even more recondite nautical terms."
--Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, 18 Feb 10, 2008
abraxaszugzwang From pompousasswords.com:
Is not such recondite reasoning, leading to such opaque conclusions about such baroque regulations of speech, prima facie evidence of incompatibility with the austere brevity of the First Amendment?
Could we find a more pompous ass passage this year? I don't think so. Of course, Bill Bennett is still out there.
Jan 29, 2007