obfuscate

verb

ob·​fus·​cate ˈäb-fə-ˌskāt How to pronounce obfuscate (audio)
äb-ˈfə-ˌskāt,
əb-
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 happenedMary Carroll
2
: confuse
obfuscate the reader

intransitive verb

: to be evasive, unclear, or confusing
The suspect often obfuscated during the interrogation.
obfuscation noun
obfuscatory adjective

Did you know?

Try to Understand the Roots of Obfuscate

Obfuscate comes from the Latin prefix ob- (meaning "over" or "completely") and fuscus ("dark-colored"). That fact gives an idea as to how the word can refer to making something difficult to see or understand—much like how dark, dirty water makes it hard to see the bottom.

Examples of obfuscate in a Sentence

Politicians keep obfuscating the issues. Their explanations only serve to obfuscate and confuse.
Recent Examples on the Web Serious people should know what an older version of antisemitic denialism was all about: a steady stream of factual nitpicks, logical inversions and rhetorical legerdemain meant to obfuscate and deny the greatest crime in history. Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 8 Mar. 2024 Private equity is a complicated industry that uses many different tools to evaluate, or obfuscate, their performance. Luisa Beltran, Fortune, 28 Feb. 2024 In the days since Smirnov’s arrest on charges of lying to the government, House G.O.P. leaders have deflected, filibustered, and otherwise obfuscated about the whole affair. Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 22 Feb. 2024 Other researchers invented new ways to obfuscate electromagnetic emissions radiating from an active processor that might reveal its secrets. IEEE Spectrum, 28 Feb. 2024 Tornado Cash is a privacy service that obfuscates the trail of ownership for cryptocurrency. Dhruv Mehrotra, WIRED, 26 Aug. 2023 The court concluded that there’s no evidence showing that OpenAI intentionally removed such information, rebuffing arguments that the company intentionally designed its training process to obfuscate infringement. Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Feb. 2024 Environmental groups criticized the change, saying JPMorgan was obfuscating its previous targets. Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times, 3 Feb. 2024 Instead of delivering the configuration settings through a command line, the botnet stores the settings in encrypted or obfuscated form and decrypts them only after XMRig is loaded into memory. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 10 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'obfuscate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Late Latin obfuscātus, offuscātus, past participle of obfuscāre, offuscāre "to obscure, darken, depreciate," from Latin ob-, perfective prefix + -fuscāre, verbal derivative of fuscus "dark-colored, somber, dark-skinned or -complected" — more at ob-, dusk entry 1

First Known Use

1536, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of obfuscate was in 1536

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Dictionary Entries Near obfuscate

Cite this Entry

“Obfuscate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obfuscate. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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