obfuscate
verb
Mary Carroll
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Try to Understand the Roots of Obfuscate
“Hello darkness, my old friend / I’ve come to talk with you again.” So begins the classic 1960s Simon and Garfunkel song “The Sound of Silence,” which was written by Paul Simon with a seemingly oxymoronic title that has obfuscated—that is, confused—ten thousand people, maybe more (probably a lot more) in the decades since. It confuses us too, but we’re not above being oxymoronic ourselves when we say that darkness, our old friend, shines a helpful light on the meaning of the word obfuscate. When obfuscate first came into use in the early 16th century, it was with the meaning “to throw into shadow.” This makes sense, since the word comes from the Latin obfuscāre (“to obscure or darken”) which itself comes in part from fuscus (“dark-colored”). The word was used for both figurative and literal darkening before developing the even more figurative senses of “to make more difficult to understand,” “to be evasive or unclear,” and “to confuse,” which in modern use are now more common.
Examples of obfuscate in a Sentence
Zak Doffman, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 2025
Euphemisms are designed to obfuscate unpleasant truths.
—Zachariah Mampilly, Foreign Affairs, 1 Apr. 2025
Yesterday, given the opportunity to back off his comments, Willard instead obfuscated.
—Chris Branch, New York Times, 27 Mar. 2025
In addition, the orbital carrier would obfuscate the satellites inside from observation by other nations or hostile actors in space.
—Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 26 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for obfuscate
Cite this Entry
“Obfuscate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obfuscate. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.
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