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OBSCURITY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The quality of being unclear or abstruse and hard to understand
Synonyms:
abstruseness; obscureness; obscurity; reconditeness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("obscurity" is a kind of...):
incomprehensibility (the quality of being incomprehensible)
Antonym:
clarity (free from obscurity and easy to understand; the comprehensibility of clear expression)
Derivation:
obscure (not clearly expressed or understood)
obscure (marked by difficulty of style or expression)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The state of being indistinct or indefinite for lack of adequate illumination
Synonyms:
obscureness; obscurity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("obscurity" is a kind of...):
semidarkness (partial darkness)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An obscure and unimportant standing; not well known
Example:
he worked in obscurity for many years
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("obscurity" is a kind of...):
standing (social or financial or professional status or reputation)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "obscurity"):
anonymity; namelessness (the state of being anonymous)
humbleness; lowliness; obscureness; unimportance (the state of being humble and unimportant)
nowhere (an insignificant place)
limbo; oblivion (the state of being disregarded or forgotten)
Antonym:
prominence (the state of being prominent: widely known or eminent)
Derivation:
obscure (not famous or acclaimed)
Context examples:
Refuse to be my wife, and you limit yourself for ever to a track of selfish ease and barren obscurity.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I am quite sure, he replied, speaking very distinctly, that he told me she had accepted him; and that there was no obscurity, nothing doubtful, in the words he used; and I think I can give you a proof that it must be so.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Afterwards, when we were fairly at our work, I found Mr. Jack Maldon's efforts more troublesome to me than I had expected, as he had not confined himself to making numerous mistakes, but had sketched so many soldiers, and ladies' heads, over the Doctor's manuscript, that I often became involved in labyrinths of obscurity.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
A fresh breeze was blowing, and for a time I was alone in the moist obscurity—yet not alone, for I was dimly conscious of the presence of the pilot, and of what I took to be the captain, in the glass house above my head.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The height of the trees and the thickness of the boles exceeded anything which I in my town-bred life could have imagined, shooting upwards in magnificent columns until, at an enormous distance above our heads, we could dimly discern the spot where they threw out their side-branches into Gothic upward curves which coalesced to form one great matted roof of verdure, through which only an occasional golden ray of sunshine shot downwards to trace a thin dazzling line of light amidst the majestic obscurity.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He informed me then, that for some time he had fancied the obscurity clouding one eye was becoming less dense; and that now he was sure of it.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Men of family would not be very fond of connecting themselves with a girl of such obscurity—and most prudent men would be afraid of the inconvenience and disgrace they might be involved in, when the mystery of her parentage came to be revealed.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Having completed her task, she rose to draw down the blind, which she had hitherto kept up, by way, I suppose, of making the most of daylight, though dusk was now fast deepening into total obscurity.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
All was obscurity.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
According as the shifting obscurity and flickering gleam hovered here or glanced there, it was now the bearded physician, Luke, that bent his brow; now St. John's long hair that waved; and anon the devilish face of Judas, that grew out of the panel, and seemed gathering life and threatening a revelation of the arch-traitor—of Satan himself—in his subordinate's form.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
