Obfuscate
Fine print, bad faith answers, and fog machines at concerts all make vision worse on purpose, and this verb owns that move.
Learn This WordMeaning
To deliberately make something unclear or difficult to understand; to obscure or confuse.
Memory trick
Think "OB-FUSCATE" = "OB (over) FUSCATE (fuse/confuse)", making things fused and confused. Obfuscate = deliberately make unclear.
Examples
The company used technical jargon to obfuscate the truth about their practices.
Don't obfuscate the issue with irrelevant details.
The dense writing seemed designed to obfuscate rather than inform.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
From Latin obfuscare "to darken," from ob- "over" + fuscare "to darken," from fuscus "dark."
Usage Notes
Often implies intentional deception or deliberate confusion. Common in discussions of communication, writing, and corporate practices.
Real-life contexts
Critique unclear writing: "This explanation obfuscates the real issue."
Discuss deception: "They obfuscate their true intentions."
Use in analysis: "The data was obfuscated to hide problems."
Common Mistakes
Obfuscate means to deliberately obscure, not just to be unclear accidentally.
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Part of Speech
verb
Difficulty
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