| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | not easily understood |
| Synonyms: | abstruse, ambiguous, arcane, clear as mud, complicated, concealed, confusing, cryptic, dark, deep, dim, doubtful, enigmatic, enigmatical, esoteric, far-out, hazy, hidden, illegible, illogical, impenetrable, incomprehensible, inconceivable, incredible, indecisive, indefinite, indeterminate, indistinct, inexplicable, inscrutable, insoluble, intricate, involved, mysterious, occult, opaque, recondite, unaccountable, unbelievable, unclear, undefined, unfathomable, unintelligible, vague |
| Antonyms: | apparent, clear, explicit, obvious, perceptible, understood |
| Main Entry: | obscure |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | out-of-the-way, little-known |
| Synonyms: | abstruse, arcane, blind, cabalistic, close, covered, cryptic, dark, deep, devious, distant, enigmatic, esoteric, far, far-off, hidden, humble, inaccessible, inconspicuous, inglorious, invisible, irrelevant, lonesome, lowly, minor, mysterious, nameless, odd, oracular, orphic, rare, recondite, remote, removed, reticent, retired, secluded, secret, secretive, seldom seen, sequestered, solitary, undisclosed, undistinguished, unheard-of, unhonored, unimportant, unknown, unnoted, unseen, unsung |
| Antonyms: | distinguished, famous, known |
| Main Entry: | abstruse |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult to understand |
| Synonyms: | Greek to me, abstract, clear as dishwater, complex, complicated, deep, enigmatic, esoteric, heavy*, hidden, incomprehensible, intricate, involved, muddy, obscure, perplexing, profound, puzzling, recondite, subtle, unfathomable, vague |
| Antonyms: | clear, concrete, easy, lucid, obvious, plain, simple |
| Main Entry: | ambiguous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | having more than one meaning |
| Synonyms: | clear as dishwater, cryptic, doubtful, dubious, enigmatic, enigmatical, equivocal, inconclusive, indefinite, indeterminate, inexplicit, muddy, multivocal, obscure, opaque, polysemous, puzzling, questionable, tenebrous, uncertain, unclear, unintelligible, vague |
| Notes: | ambiguous is vague by accident or intent; equivocal is vague by intent |
| Antonyms: | clear, definite, explicit, lucid |
| Main Entry: | cloudy |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hazy; darkened |
| Synonyms: | blurred, confused, dark, dense, dim, dismal, dull, dusky, emulsified, foggy, gloomy, heavy, indefinite, indistinct, leaden, lowering, misty, mucky, muddy, murky, mushy, nebulous, nontranslucent, nontransparent, not clear, nubilous, obscure, opaque, overcast, somber, sullen, sunless, vaporous |
| Notes: | to the National Weather Service, partly cloudy (what we think of as partly sunny) is 3/8-5/8 cloud cover, mostly cloudy is 6/8-7/8 cloud cover, and cloudy is 8/8 |
| Antonyms: | clear, cloudless |
| Main Entry: | common |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | average, ordinary |
| Synonyms: | accepted, banal, bourgeois, casual, characteristic, colloquial, comformable, commonplace, conventional, current, customary, daily, everyday, familiar, frequent, general, habitual, hackneyed, homely, humdrum, informal, mediocre, monotonous, natural, obscure, passable, plain, prevailing, prevalent, probable, prosaic, regular, routine, run-of-the-mill, simple, stale, standard, stereotyped, stock, trite, trivial, typical, undistinguished, universal, unvaried, usual, wearisome, workaday, worn-out |
| Notes: | mutual applies to reciprocal relationships between two or more things; if something is held in common, use 'common' instead |
| Antonyms: | abnormal, extraordinary, infrequent, noteworthy, rare, scarce, uncommon, unusual, valuable |
| Main Entry: | complex |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult to understand |
| Synonyms: | Byzantine, Daedalean, Gordian, abstruse, bewildering, circuitous, complicated, confused, convoluted, crabbed, cryptic, discursive, disordered, disturbing, enigmatic, entangled, excursive, hidden, impenetrable, inscrutable, interwoven, intricate, involved, jumbled, knotted, knotty, labyrinthine, mazy, meandering, mingled, mixed, muddled, obscure, paradoxical, perplexing, puzzling, rambling, recondite, round-about, sinuous, snarled, sophisticated, tangled, tortuous, undecipherable, unfathomable, winding |
| Notes: | something complex may be well-organized and logically constructed as well as subtle and intricate, while a thing that is complicated will have something irregular, perverse, asymmetrical in addition to fundamental intricacy; complex is more formal and technical (a problem in mathematics is complex) while something like personal life can be complicated |
| Antonyms: | apparent, clear, direct, discernible, easy, evident, obvious, plain |
| Main Entry: | concealed |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hidden, secret |
| Synonyms: | buried, cached, camouflaged, covered, covered up, covert, enshrouded, guarded, holed up, hush-hush, hushed up, incog, incognito, inconspicuous, masked, obscure, obscured, on the Q. T., perdu, planted, privy, put in the hole, recondite, screened, secreted, shrouded, stashed, tucked away, ulterior, under wraps, unseen, veiled |
| Antonyms: | bare, clear, disclosed, exposed, obvious, open, plain, revealed, shown, told, uncovered |
| Main Entry: | conditional |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dependent |
| Synonyms: | codicillary, contingent, depending on, fortuitous, granted on certain terms, guarded, iffy, incidental, inconclusive, limited, modified, not absolute, obscure, provisional, provisory, qualified, relative, reliant, relying on, restricted, restrictive, subject to, tentative, uncertain, with grain of salt, with reservations, with strings attached |
| Antonyms: | independent, unconditional, unlimited, unqualified, unrestricted |