obfuscate

verb ob·fus·cate \ ˈäb-fə-ˌskāt ; äb-ˈfə-ˌskāt , əb- \

Updated on: 12 Apr 2018

Definition of obfuscate

obfuscated; obfuscating

transitive verb

1 a : to throw into shadow : darken

b : to make obscure

obfuscate the issue

officials who … continue to obscure and obfuscate what happened
—Mary Carroll

2 : confuse

obfuscate the reader

intransitive verb

: to be evasive, unclear, or confusing

The suspect often obfuscated during the interrogation.

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obfuscation

play \ˌäb-(ˌ)fə-ˈskā-shən\ noun

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obfuscatory

play \äb-ˈfə-skə-ˌtȯr-ē, əb-\ adjective

See obfuscate defined for English-language learners

obfuscate was our Word of the Day on 11/17/2016. Hear the podcast!

Examples of obfuscate in a Sentence

Politicians keep obfuscating the issues.
Their explanations only serve to obfuscate and confuse.

Recent Examples of obfuscate from the Web

Equally important, Apple has invested heavily in building data mining tools that respect user privacy and attempt to anonymize and obfuscate user data in mathematically defensible ways.

— alex salkever, Fortune, "Commentary: Apple Actually Cares About Users’ Data. Facebook Could Learn a Lesson.," 27 Mar. 2018
In the meantime, pro-Kremlin media outlets have proposed a series of contradictory explanations for the poisoning, apparently designed to obfuscate the reality and confuse the wider audience, both at home and abroad.

— maria snegovaya, Washington Post, "Why did Russia poison one of its ex-spies in Britain?," 20 Mar. 2018
LiveRamp goes to great lengths to mathematically obfuscate our individual identities, said Sheila Colclasure, chief data ethics officer at LiveRamp and Acxiom.

— christopher mims, WSJ, "Your Location Data Is Being Sold—Often Without Your Knowledge," 4 Mar. 2018
Kim Yong Chol, the leader of a North Korean delegation visiting Seoul and an official blacklisted by both the United States and South Korea for his role in the nuclear weapons program, seemed to obfuscate Monday.

— anna fifield, Washington Post, "South Korea’s president urges both Washington and Pyongyang to be pragmatic," 26 Feb. 2018
In fact, black youth, who've been passionately advocating for gun control measures, have been demonized, obfuscated, and overlooked.

— lincoln anthony blades, Teen Vogue, "Black Teens Have Been Fighting for Gun Reform for Years," 23 Feb. 2018
And so, the GOP is compelled to obfuscate this reality by engineering an equal and opposite scandal.

— eric levitz, Daily Intelligencer, "The GOP’s FBI Conspiracy Theory Just Got Even Dumber," 25 Jan. 2018
The undercurrent of attempts by the government to confuse, obfuscate and downright lie to the American people, including urging people not to believe the media, rings true today.

— michael sangiacomo, cleveland.com, "'The Post,' as good as you've heard, maybe better (review)," 9 Jan. 2018
Peter Vincent, a former Department of Homeland Security official, warned strong background checks carried out on behalf of the Caribbean countries were essential to prevent criminals from obfuscating their true identities and obtaining passports.

— saphora smith, NBC News, "Hurricane-hit countries slash cost of citizenship-by-investment programs," 6 Jan. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'obfuscate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Try to Understand the Roots of obfuscate

To obfuscate something means to make it so that it isn't clear or transparent, much like dirty water makes it hard to see to the bottom of a pond. The verb shares its ob- root (meaning "over, completely") with obscure, another word that can refer to the act of concealing something or making it more difficult to see or understand. The rest of obfuscate comes from Latin fuscus, which means "dark brown" and is distantly related to our word dusk.