as in confusing
to make (something) unclear to the understanding
irrelevant matters that only serve to obfuscate the fundamental issue of guilt or innocence
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Recent Examples of obfuscating
The renderings showed an imposing new East Wing roughly a city block long, longer than the West Wing and almost completely obfuscating the view of the Treasury Building from the South Lawn.
—
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA Today, 16 Feb. 2026
Lawyers for the group contend that the city is willfully obfuscating to cover up its inadequate efforts to live up to its settlement.
—Los Angeles Times, 16 Jan. 2026
The state says the foundation did this because Aerial Recovery, the nonprofit, had been obfuscating its name.
—Evan Mealins, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Oct. 2025
Some data types can be encrypted randomly, obfuscating enough of the data to stymie hackers—such as using only the last four digits of your credit to confirm your purchase identity.
—Srinivas Shekar, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA Today, 16 Feb. 2026
Lawyers for the group contend that the city is willfully obfuscating to cover up its inadequate efforts to live up to its settlement.
—Los Angeles Times, 16 Jan. 2026
The state says the foundation did this because Aerial Recovery, the nonprofit, had been obfuscating its name.
—Evan Mealins, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Oct. 2025
Some data types can be encrypted randomly, obfuscating enough of the data to stymie hackers—such as using only the last four digits of your credit to confirm your purchase identity.
—Srinivas Shekar, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for obfuscating
Verb
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The citizens of Texas are confusing hospitality for complacency.—
Eleanor Dearman,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
14 Feb. 2026
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Registration deadlines, confusing rules and inconsistent access make participation harder at the very moment young people become eligible to vote.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
10 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Together, these elements underscore the exhibition’s multivalent nature, blurring distinctions between sculpture and performance, object and instrument, stillness and activation.—
Michelle F. Solomon,
Miami Herald,
17 Feb. 2026
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Analysts also noted that the longstanding nexus between business leaders and politicians has been a mixed blessing in Bangladesh—often facilitating swift policy decisions to support industry, yet at times blurring lines between commercial and political interests.—
Mayu Saini,
Sourcing Journal,
16 Feb. 2026
Verb
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As the decades passed, their experiments escalated into increasingly absurd inquiries, muddying the boundaries between subjective and objective reality.—
Shannon Taggart,
Artforum,
1 Feb. 2026
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This may be because the nucleus accumbens, the other reward region that some participants learned to ramp up, didn’t have the same connection to immune response, muddying the results.—
Allison Parshall,
Scientific American,
19 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Obfuscating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/obfuscating. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.
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