Synonyms for obscurity
Most common
abstruseness obscureness reconditeness uncertainty vagueness darkness
Synonyms by meaning
Noun
1. Abstruseness
2. Obfuscation
obfuscation formal, uncertainty, vagueness, haze, obscuration, perplexity, ambiguity, mist, intricacy
Definitions
- n. 1
Darkness; the absence of light.
- n. 2
The state of being unknown; a thing that is unknown.
She was plucked from obscurity to star in a Broadway musical.
- n. 3
The quality of being difficult to understand; a thing that is difficult to understand.
Related words
- Word family
- obscure
Forms
- Plural
- obscurities → abstrusenesses, obscurenesses, obfuscations, uncertainties…
Example sentences
- uncertainty All forecasts have a certain degree of uncertainty.
- vagueness She complained about the vagueness of the instructions.
- darkness Light and darkness are two sides of the same coin.
- mystery The mystery story is so hard that I don't like it.
- anonymity Anonymity or detailed reference are both fine.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| obscurity | steady | |
| uncertainty | rising | |
| vagueness | steady | |
| darkness | rising | |
| mystery | rising | |
| anonymity | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- dark1, mist1, haze1
- 5 letters
- night1, shade1, gloom1
- 6 letters
- shadow2
- 7 letters
- mystery3, opacity4, dimness
- 8 letters
- darkness2
- 9 letters
- ambiguity5, anonymity5, vagueness2, intricacy4, obliquity, muddiness
- 10 letters
- perplexity4, obscurancy
- 11 letters
- uncertainty4, obfuscation4, obscuration, obscureness, tenebrosity, unknownness
- 12 letters
- abstruseness, namelessness
- 13 letters
- reconditeness
- 14 letters
- indistinctness, ingloriousness
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (shadow2 = 2 syllables).