obscurity

English

Wikipedia

Noun

obscurity (plural obscurities)

1. (literary) Darkness; the absence of light.
   • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 6, The Dust of Conflict^[1]:

     The night was considerably clearer than anybody on board her desired when the schooner Ventura headed for the land. It rose in places, black and sharp against the velvety indigo, over her dipping bow, though most of the low littoral was wrapped in obscurity.

   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, ch. 24

     I walked in, and Stroeve followed me. The room was in darkness. I could only see that it was an attic, with a sloping roof; and a faint glimmer, no more than a less profound obscurity, came from a skylight.

2. The state of being unknown; a thing that is unknown
3. The quality of being difficult to understand; a thing that is difficult to understand

Related terms

• obscure

Translations

darkness; the absence of light

• Asturian: escuridá (ast) f
• French: obscurité (fr) f
• Italian: oscurità (it) f
• Portuguese: obscuridade (pt) f

• Romanian: obscuritate (ro) f
• Russian: мрак (ru) (mrak) m , темнота (ru) (temnotá) f , тьма (ru) (tʹma) f 
• Spanish: oscuridad (es) f

The state of being unknown; a thing that is unknown

• Russian: неизвестность (ru) (neizvéstnostʹ) f , безвестность (ru) (bezvéstnostʹ) f 

The quality of being difficult to understand; a thing that is difficult to understand

• Russian: неясность (ru) (nejásnostʹ) f