obfuscate
verb
Elizabeth Helman MinchilliChristopher LynchJudith MartinColin Lecher
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Try to Understand the Roots of Obfuscate
“Hello darkness, my old friend / I’ve come to talk with you again.” So begins the classic 1960s Simon and Garfunkel song “The Sound of Silence,” which was written by Paul Simon with a seemingly oxymoronic title that has obfuscated—that is, confused—ten thousand people, maybe more (probably a lot more) in the decades since. It confuses us too, but we’re not above being oxymoronic ourselves when we say that darkness, our old friend, shines a helpful light on the meaning of the word obfuscate. When obfuscate first came into use in the early 16th century, it was with the meaning “to throw into shadow.” This makes sense, since the word comes from the Latin obfuscāre (“to obscure or darken”) which itself comes in part from fuscus (“dark-colored”). The word was used for both figurative and literal darkening before developing the even more figurative senses of “to make more difficult to understand,” “to be evasive or unclear,” and “to confuse,” which in modern use are now more common.
Examples of obfuscate in a Sentence
Dónal Gill, The Dial, 28 Oct. 2025
The state says the foundation did this because Aerial Recovery, the nonprofit, had been obfuscating its name.
—Evan Mealins, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Oct. 2025
Sometimes, Death in the Family seems to be saying that our attempt to assign deeper meanings to acts of violence obfuscates how mean or petty human nature can be.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2025
However, critics argued the move would obfuscate important information.
—Rachel Frazin, The Hill, 12 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for obfuscate
Cite this Entry
“Obfuscate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obfuscate. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
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