Entry Word: profound

Function: adjective

Meaning: 1 difficult for one of ordinary knowledge or intelligence to understand <a profound observation about good and evil that few listeners fully grasped>

Synonyms abstruse, deep, esoteric, recondite

Related Words erudite, learned, scholarly; academic, pedantic; complex, complicated, hard; darkling, enigmatic (also enigmatical), inscrutable, mysterious, mystic, uncanny; impenetrable, incomprehensible, unfathomable, unintelligible; ambiguous, cryptic; unanswerable, unknowable; baffling, bewildering, confounding, confusing, mystifying, perplexing, puzzling

Near Antonyms easy, facile, simple, straightforward; comprehensible, fathomable, intelligible, understandable; clear, obvious, plain

Antonyms shallow

2 extreme in degree, power, or effect <a profound silence fell over the audience after the last note had sounded> — see intense
3 having no exceptions or restrictions <a profound dislike of raw vegetables> — see absolute 2