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
Even when transactions are obfuscated, pre- and post-mix analysis allows investigators to trace movements once funds interact with exchanges or identifiable wallets.
—Becca Bratcher, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2025
While the footage typically obfuscates the narrative details around the film’s occult thrills, the logline confirms that the story follows a brother and sister who uncover a horrifying ritual in their foster mother’s home.
—J. Kim Murphy, Variety, 19 Feb. 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 15 Apr. 2025.
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