obfuscate

ob·fus·cate | \ ˈäb-fə-ˌskāt

How to pronounce obfuscate (audio)

; äb-ˈfə-ˌskāt, əb- \

obfuscated; obfuscating

Definition of obfuscate

transitive verb

1a : 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.

Other Words from obfuscate Synonyms & Antonyms Try to Understand the Roots of Obfuscate More Example Sentences Learn More about obfuscate

Keep scrolling for more

Examples of obfuscate in a Sentence

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

Recent Examples on the Web For Maier, the conservative Germans were obfuscating the fact that their ancestors, and no one else, had built the death camps. — Samuel Moyn, The New York Review of Books, "The Trouble with Comparisons," 19 May 2020 If one of these is covered up by an obstruction, then, RoadTagger can look to the other tiles to predict what's included in the one that's obfuscated. — Courtney Linder, Popular Mechanics, "How Machine Learning Will Lead to Better Maps," 27 Jan. 2020 The effort of so many Republican colleagues of mine to obfuscate away from the president’s egregious conduct and abuse of power is something that has shocked the conscience of many of my colleagues in the Democratic House. — Justin Wingerter, The Denver Post, "Trump campaign accuses Colorado congressman of impeachment lies," 8 Dec. 2019 Reducing both oil and the disease to little more than economic forces obfuscates another side of the equation, in which the virus is a thing in the world. — On Barak, Quartz, "Fossil fuels are propelling Covid-19—and the next pandemic," 16 Apr. 2020 These numbers obfuscate a darker reality: the deleterious effect of art fairs on small and medium-size galleries. — Brian P. Kelly, WSJ, "The High Cost of Art Fairs," 3 Mar. 2020 Complex transactions can obfuscate lenders’ true financial health, while more detailed rules have made regulatory reporting and external scrutiny even harder. — Washington Post, "Bankers Are Playing With Fire, Once Again," 16 Dec. 2019 But a credit card looks the same before and after the transaction, obfuscating what was actually given up for that bauble. — New York Times, "The Best Way to Use a Credit Card? Treat It Like Cash.," 11 Feb. 2020 That has been widely viewed -- particularly in Beijing -- as an attempt to blame China for the pandemic itself, obfuscating any responsibility US and other officials have for their own handling of it. — James Griffiths, CNN, "Trump and Beijing agree on the coronavirus crisis: It's someone else's fault," 17 Mar. 2020

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.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about obfuscate

Listen to Our Podcast about obfuscate

Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP

Dictionary Entries near obfuscate

Statistics for obfuscate

Last Updated

22 May 2020

Cite this Entry

“Obfuscate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obfuscate. Accessed 1 Jun. 2020.

Keep scrolling for more

Keep scrolling for more

WORD OF THE DAY

stiction

See Definitions and Examples »

Test Your Vocabulary

May 2020 Words of the Day Quiz

Which is a synonym of exiguous?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.