Word of the Day

: February 27, 2018

tenebrous

adjective TEN-uh-brus

What It Means

1 : shut off from the light : dark, murky

2 : hard to understand : obscure

3 : causing gloom

tenebrous in Context

"Stay close to me," said my brother as we walked through the tenebrous alley alongside the apartment building.

"HBO's newest critical hit, which … centers on a serial-killer case in a story that unfolds over 17 years, is haunting and tenebrous, with compelling acting, brilliant dialogue and ethereal scenery." — Robert Zullo, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9 Mar. 2014

Did You Know?

Tenebrous means "obscure" or "murky," but there's nothing unclear about its history. Etymologists know that the word derives from the Latin noun tenebrae, which means "darkness." Tenebrous has been used in English since the 15th century, and in the 20th century it was joined by some interesting relations. Tenebrionid is the name of a nocturnal beetle that is usually dark-colored and is also called a darkling beetle. Tenebrism refers to a style of painting—associated with the Italian painter Caravaggio—in which most of the figures are engulfed in shadow but some are dramatically illuminated by concentrated light.