1
as in blunt
lacking sharpness of edge or point
obtuse scissors designed so that young users will not cut themselves
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in dumb
not having or showing an ability to absorb ideas readily
forgive me for being obtuse, but I wish you'd explain that to me again
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of obtuse
Nevala-Lee’s previous biography was on Buckminster Fuller, architect, futurist, longtime professor at Southern Illinois University, but also an infamously obtuse, inscrutable mansplainer’s mansplainer — his lectures seemed to go on for days.
—
Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 13 Aug. 2025
Hours are wasted sifting through open roles, tweaking cover letters, dealing with obtuse recruiters—and that’s all before you get started with potential interviews.
—Matt Burgess, Wired News, 7 Aug. 2025
Turning it into a cheap conceit to blast a political opponent is both obtuse and shameful, and only serves to bolster those who would downplay the terrors of Hitler’s reign.
—Boston Herald Editorial Staff, Boston Herald, 15 June 2025
Instead, the show morphed into a thudding retread of SATC with weaker, more diluted storytelling/joke-telling and an obtuse obsession with flaunting its characters’ seemingly infinite riches.
—Robyn Bahr, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for obtuse
Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 13 Aug. 2025
Hours are wasted sifting through open roles, tweaking cover letters, dealing with obtuse recruiters—and that’s all before you get started with potential interviews.
—Matt Burgess, Wired News, 7 Aug. 2025
Turning it into a cheap conceit to blast a political opponent is both obtuse and shameful, and only serves to bolster those who would downplay the terrors of Hitler’s reign.
—Boston Herald Editorial Staff, Boston Herald, 15 June 2025
Instead, the show morphed into a thudding retread of SATC with weaker, more diluted storytelling/joke-telling and an obtuse obsession with flaunting its characters’ seemingly infinite riches.
—Robyn Bahr, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for obtuse
Recent Examples of Synonyms for obtuse
Adjective
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And while she’s known for experimenting with her look — from waist-length neon wigs to sleek blunt bobs — Cardi has shown that her natural hair is full and long, stretching down her back.—
Ryma Chikhoune,
Footwear News,
11 Feb. 2026
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Its descriptively blunt autobiographical accounts of palpable angst start off reserved—but never boring—and slowly blossom into an explosive finish.—
Billie Bugara,
Pitchfork,
10 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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These apps often default to a faster, dumber model.—
Matt Shumer,
Fortune,
11 Feb. 2026
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Who, other than dumb people like me, are gonna recruit high school kids?—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
10 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Flat, calm but earnest, mildly anxious, blunted, volatile.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
27 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
But maybe Johnson isn’t stupid.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
11 Feb. 2026
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Such as the one where the candidate remarked that some white rural Americans were stupid and racist.—
Mark Leibovich,
The Atlantic,
11 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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That builds on similar trends throughout 2025, when the industry buoyed an otherwise slow labor market, as the nation’s hospitals, clinics and nursing homes kept hiring even as many employers pulled back.—
Abha Bhattarai,
Washington Post,
14 Feb. 2026
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Any type of realism was [limited to] very short clips, everything was very slow, bad textures, no skin textures, lacking detail.—
Arjun Kharpal,
CNBC,
14 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Feltner’s routine was pretty simple.—
Patrick Saunders,
Denver Post,
12 Feb. 2026
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Crime 101 takes the same view of quid pro quo as the most basic form of American commerce and makes simple but brutal points about value and self-worth, where your car, its year, make and model, matters more than your resumé.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
11 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Mathews vividly remembers riding in one of her father’s water trucks through thick smoke as black as the night to help family members and other ranchers save their homes.—
Michael Collins,
USA Today,
14 Feb. 2026
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Now, a team of researchers from the Polish Academy of Sciences has shown that even a bare carbon fiber, no thicker than a human hair, can bend and straighten on command, without any direct wiring.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
14 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The Antarctic Ocean is heavily layered, or stratified, to a depth of around 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) because of conflicting properties including colder, denser water from below not readily mixing with fresh water running off melting ice from above.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
18 Feb. 2026
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For the first time, the researchers demonstrated that human spinal cord organoids can reproduce the formation of dense glial scars, which block nerve regeneration.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
17 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Obtuse.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/obtuse. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.
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