obfuscate

play

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

Updated on: 7 Aug 2017

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

Or are fivethirtyeight.com's writers obfuscating the only numbers that matter: 44-39 (18-23 at home) and 0.5 games ahead of second-place Kansas City?

— joe noga, cleveland.com, "Are the Indians playing better than their record indicates, or is that just statistical mumbo jumbo?," 6 July 2017
In the event that the target is tricked into double-clicking on an icon promising to unlock the document contents, however, obfuscated JavaScript copies malicious code into two separate files stored in two separate directories.

— dan goodin, Ars Technica, "Fileless malware targeting US restaurants went undetected by most AV," 14 June 2017
The horror overlaying the Orlando shooting, and all mass shootings, obfuscates the patterns and predictors of these violent attacks.

— leslie morgan steiner, CNN, "Why private violence is a public safety issue," 6 June 2017
But a series of top Trump aides have dodged, spun and obfuscated when asked whether the President believes climate change is happening.

— dan merica, CNN, "What does Trump believe about climate change? His aides won't say, and you can't ask him," 2 June 2017
To obfuscate its activity, the original file on the file server remains unchanged; it is only modified/replaced while in transit from the pandemic file server before being executed on the computer of the remote user.

— dan goodin, Ars Technica, "WikiLeaks says CIA’s “Pandemic” turns servers into infectious Patient Zero," 1 June 2017
Yes, Trump can delay, prevaricate, obfuscate, annoy and even shut down federal science.

— jeffrey sachs, CNN, "US faces disgrace if Trump drops Paris climate pact," 31 May 2017
But, in what has become typical fashion, Spicer obfuscated.

— tina nguyen, The Hive, "How Much Longer Can Sean Spicer Serve a Man Who Wants to Crush His Soul?," 18 May 2017
The Moroccan and Jordanian monarchies are flaunting their nondemocratic model after decades of obfuscating it behind the veil of reform.

— sean yom, Washington Post, "Why Jordan and Morocco are doubling down on royal rule," 16 May 2017

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.