Did you know?
Latin Ties Things Together With Abstruse
Look closely at the following Latin verbs, all of which come from the verb trūdere (“to push, thrust”): extrudere, intrudere, obtrudere, protrudere. Remove the last two letters of each of these and you get an English descendant whose meaning involves pushing or thrusting. Another trūdere offspring, abstrūdere, meaning “to conceal,” gave English abstrude, meaning “to thrust away,” but that 17th-century borrowing has fallen out of use. An abstrūdere descendant that has survived is abstruse, an adjective that recalls the meaning of its Latin parent abstrūsus, meaning “concealed.” Like the similar-sounding obtuse, abstruse describes something difficult to understand—that is, something that has a “concealed” meaning.
Examples of abstruse in a Sentence
Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 3 Sep. 2025
Kamala Harris’ penchant for strings of abstruse verbiage — popularly known as word salads — was one of several reasons her presidential campaign failed last year.
—Dan Walters, Mercury News, 6 Aug. 2025
Also, his estimate arose from abstruse economic formulas and lots of magic asterisks.
—Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2025
Some questioned what the White House could gain from reviewing abstruse rules for nuclear safety.
—Geoff Brumfiel, NPR, 9 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for abstruse
Cite this Entry
“Abstruse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abstruse. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
abstruse
adjective
Share