vague

/veɪg/

/veɪg/

Other forms: vaguest; vaguer

If your grasp of physics is vague and you've got a test coming up, it's time to hit the books. When something is vague, it’s unclear, murky, and hard to understand.

Vague comes from the Latin vagus, which means wandering or rambling. Think of a vagabond, someone who wanders around the world with only a vague idea of where he's going. There are a few big, impressive words for vague, including ambiguous, nebulous, and tenebrous.

Definitions of vague

1. adjective

   lacking clarity or distinctness
   “saw a vague outline of a building through the fog”

   synonyms: dim, faint, shadowy, wispy

   indistinct

   not clearly defined or easy to perceive or understand
2. adjective

   not precisely limited, determined, or distinguished
   “vague feelings of sadness”

   “a vague uneasiness”

   synonyms: undefined

   indefinable, undefinable

   not capable of being precisely or readily described; not easily put into words

   indefinite

   vague or not clearly defined or stated
3. adjective

   not clearly understood or expressed
   “"their descriptions of human behavior become vague, dull, and unclear"- P.A.Sorokin”

   “"vague...forms of speech...have so long passed for mysteries of science"- John Locke”

   synonyms: murky, obscure

   unclear

   not clear to the mind