obscurity Hear it!

obscurity Definition

ob·scu·rity (-skyo̵or′ə tē)

noun

  1. the quality or condition of being obscure
  2. pl. obscurities -·ties an obscure person or thing
obscurity Synonyms

obscurity

n.

vagueness, dimness, fuzziness; see uncertainty 1, 2, 3.

obscurity Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • fill: Little more than past three or obscurity filled with.
  • avoid: To avoid such obscurity I need to be specific.
  • deserve: This particular term - which places more emphasis on teaching than on learning - had almost faded into a perhaps deserved obscurity.
  • give: She considered the possibility that she was perhaps also blind, given the obscurity of her current environment.
  • explain: That would explain the obscurity of the history of Powys during this period: it had effectively ceased to exist as an independent state.

Adjective modifier

  • mid-table: He took us from mid-table obscurity to playoff victory with a threadbare squad in the space of seven months.
  • wilful: Julian Evans - The Guardian Bad: ..the collection as a whole is vitiated by a wilful obscurity which borders on arrogance.
  • relative: Animation attracts quiet, low-key people who are happy to work away in relative obscurity with little contact with the outside world.
  • comparative: Dundee United have come a very long way in four decades, progressing from comparative obscurity to become one of Scotland's foremost clubs.
  • virtual: From virtual obscurity, PMS or PMT has become one of the most talked about twentieth-century diseases.
  • total: Published in October, it lapses into total obscurity.

Noun used with modifier

  • table: After two seasons of mid table obscurity the 1983-84 season brought an improvement to 6th.

Preposition: in

  • year: Rand's ideas languished in relative obscurity in the years following the publication of her essays.

Preposition: of

  • expression: There is the expression of obscurity and there is obscurity of expression.
  • subject: The fifth-century BC Greek philosopher Protagoras thought ' the obscurity of the subject ' made dogmatism about the gods unwise.
  • law: The Government hoped to use the obscurity of seed law to sneak this decision past the public without anyone noticing.

Preposition: for

  • year: My site wallowed in obscurity for a couple years.
  • decade: Thereafter he lived in quiet obscurity for four decades.
obscurity Quotes

I'm afraid of losing my obscurity.Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery.

—Huxley, Aldous Leonard

My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the obscurity of a learned language.

—Gibbon, Edward

Wir tappen im Labyrinth unsers Lebenswandels und im Dunkel unserer Forschungen umher: helleAugenblicke erleuchten dabei wie Blitze unsernWeg. We grope about in the labyrinth of our life and in the obscurity of our investigations; bright moments illuminate our path like flashes of lightning.

—Schopenhauer, Arthur

Concerning the gods I am not in a position to know either that they are or that they are not, or what theyare like in appearance; for there are many things that are preventing knowledge, the obscurity of the matter and the brevity of human life.

—Protagoras

I have but one request to make at my departure from this world, it isöthe charity of its silence. Let no man write my epitaph; for as no man who knows my motives, dare now vindicate them, let no prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them rest in obscurity and peace! Let my memory be left in oblivion, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times and other men can do justicetomycharacter.Whenmycountry takesher place among thenations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written.

—Emmet, Robert