esoteric

1 difficult for one of ordinary knowledge or intelligence to understand metaphysics is such an esoteric subject that most people are content to leave it to the philosophers Synonyms abstruse, arcane, deep, profound, hermetic (also hermetical), reconditeRelated Words erudite, learned, scholarly; academic (also academical), pedantic; complex, complicated, hard; darkling, enigmatic (also enigmatical), inscrutable, mysterious, mystic, mystical, orphic, uncanny; impenetrable, incomprehensible, unfathomable, unintelligible; ambiguous, cryptic; unanswerable, unknowable; baffling, bewildering, confounding, confusing, disorienting, mystifying, perplexing, puzzlingNear Antonyms easy, facile, simple, straightforward; comprehensible, fathomable, intelligible, understandable; apparent, clear, clear-cut, distinct, evident, lucid, manifest, obvious, perspicuous, plain, transparentAntonyms shallow, superficial

2 not known or meant to be known by the general populace must have had some esoteric motive for leaving his art collection to a museum halfway around the globe Synonyms behind-the-scenes, confidential, private, hushed, hush-hush, inside, intimate, nonpublic, privy, secretRelated Words classified, restricted, top secret; silent, unadvertised, unannounced, undisclosed, unmentioned, unsaid, untold; clandestine, closet, collusive, conspiratorial, covert; furtive, hugger-mugger, occult, sneak, sneaking, sneaky, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover, underground, underhand, underhanded; personal; closeted, concealed, hidden; repressed, silenced, stifled, suppressed; backstage, offscreen, offstageNear Antonyms well-known; advertised, aired, announced, blazed, broadcast, declared, disclosed, divulged, enunciated, heralded, proclaimed, professed, promulgated, publicized, published, reported, spotlighted; general, popular, prevailing, vulgar; current, prevalent, rife, widespread; communal, sharedAntonyms common, open, public