Synonyms: Unclear

Here's an assortment of ambiguous words to describe situations and things that are not easy to understand. For more synonym lists, explore our Say What You Mean resources.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. abstruse
    difficult to understand
    Some of the more abstruse passages in the novel made sense to me; others did not, even when I reread them several times. New York Times (Mar 26, 2019)
    Abstrusus means "hidden" in Latin.
  2. ambiguous
    having more than one possible meaning
    My mother tried to explain, yet each time she did I found her explanations vague, cryptic, obscure, ambiguous, enigmatic and too fantastic to be believable. Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography
  3. blur
    a hazy or indistinct representation
    The night was a blur now; I couldn’t remember any dreams, just flashes of red hair and chess pieces, wisps of violin music. Made You Up
    If a photograph is blurry it's out of focus, and the details are unclear.
  4. cryptic
    having a secret or hidden meaning
    And then Ellis noticed that the first cryptic entry in the hiker’s journal read, “Exit Fairbanks. Sitting Galliean. Rabbit Day.” Into the Wild
    Kryptos means "hidden" in Greek. The science of making and breaking secret codes is called cryptography.
  5. enigmatic
    not clear to the understanding
    Talk to bee people, and they say that the factors affecting bees are indeed complicated, enigmatic and imperfectly understood. Washington Post (Aug 26, 2016)
    An enigma is a puzzle or a mystery. Ainigma is Greek for "a riddle."
  6. impenetrable
    impossible to understand
    He mostly just stares off with a faraway perplexed look on his face, like he’s trying to work through an impenetrable mathematical equation. I'll Give You the Sun
  7. indistinct
    not clearly defined or easy to perceive or understand
    As if to confirm my opinion, Denna scowled fiercely and squirmed away from the light, muttering something indistinct and decidedly unlady like. The Name of the Wind
  8. mysterious
    beyond ordinary understanding
    If the secret and mysterious land of Egypt was fascinating in the daytime, it was doubly so at night. The Egypt Game
  9. nebulous
    lacking definite form or limits
    But it was nebulous, too much of an unknown. Americanah
  10. obfuscate
    make obscure or unclear
    As a result, the one doing the watching tries to do so undetected, and the one doing the hiding tries to obfuscate the location of its treasure. Scientific American (May 11, 2012)
    Obfuscare means "to darken" in Latin, so to obfuscate is to make something confusing or hidden.
  11. obscure
    make unclear or less visible
    In her dream, he was explaining something—something important—but his voice was obscured by the rumble of the volcano. The Girl Who Drank the Moon
  12. occlude
    block passage through
    But deep in the fields the brownish stalks rise from the earth to more than twice her height, occluding her vision. Dreaming in Cuban
  13. opaque
    not transmitting or reflecting light or radiant energy
    The interior gradually becomes opaque, covered with a thick brown tar. Cosmos
    Opaque is the opposite of transparent: you can't see through it at all.
  14. recondite
    difficult to understand
    Talk of theory and whether someone is named in a document might sound recondite. Economist (Oct 24, 2017)
    Reconditus means "hidden" or "secret" in Latin. Recondite is close in meaning to abstruse and obscure.
  15. turbid
    clouded as with sediment
    “The turbid river was encumbered with masses of charred wood, with black hulks of vessels, and skeletons of fallen bridges. . . .” The Great Fire
    Cloudy water, like a river churned up by heavy rain, is turbid: full of mud and impossible to see through.
  16. vague
    lacking clarity or distinctness
    Finally, the vague outline of a coast appeared. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky
    Vagus means "uncertain" in Latin. Something that is vague lacks detail and is not clear.
Created on Fri Feb 19 11:30:15 EST 2021 (updated Mon Mar 22 17:52:34 EDT 2021)

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