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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Recent Examples of obtuse
Alfie, who’s either being willfully obtuse or radically uncompromising, sees nothing sacrilegious in Wilde’s one-act tragedy.
—
Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 21 May 2025
Instead, Zannier preserved existing vegetation and engineered against erosion—environmental consciousness that makes neighboring resorts look positively obtuse by comparison.
—Paul Jebara, Forbes.com, 30 Apr. 2025
See the previous discussion of economists, and their horridly obtuse belief that war grows the economy.
—John Tamny, Forbes, 18 Dec. 2024
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
Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 21 May 2025
Instead, Zannier preserved existing vegetation and engineered against erosion—environmental consciousness that makes neighboring resorts look positively obtuse by comparison.
—Paul Jebara, Forbes.com, 30 Apr. 2025
See the previous discussion of economists, and their horridly obtuse belief that war grows the economy.
—John Tamny, Forbes, 18 Dec. 2024
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
-
Yacobi’s defense attorney, however, countered with the findings of a forensic pathologist who said Violet died from blunt force trauma consistent with a fall from a second-story balcony.—
Christine Pelisek,
PEOPLE,
4 Sep. 2025
-
The coroner listed her cause of death as traumatic blunt force injuries and the manner of death as accidental.—
Sally Krutzig,
Idaho Statesman,
4 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
The reigning Super Bowl champs better hope that’s the dumbest thing that one of their players does this season.—
Parker Gabriel,
Denver Post,
6 Sep. 2025
-
Sometimes, actors play a slightly dumber iteration of themselves; think James Van Der Beek in Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23 and Liam Neeson in Life’s Too Short (a performance that got Neeson cast in this year’s The Naked Gun).—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
The recent rash of CEOs Gone Wild is arguably even stupider than commonplace fraud, and a troubling sign that there continues to be a slippery slope of accountability for C-Suite leadership.—
Ian Chaffee,
Fortune,
5 Sep. 2025
-
The accounts team logs in right on time, and the stupid dance of platitudes that precedes every meeting at every company around the world begins.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Biden, who ended his bid for a second White House term 107 days before last year's election, has been relatively slow to move on presidential library planning compared with most of his recent predecessors.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
7 Sep. 2025
-
With Parkinson’s, doctors implant electrodes in the brain that produce electrical impulses to disrupt the abnormal signals that cause tremors, stiffness and slow movement.—
Jen Christensen,
CNN Money,
7 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
With just a few chairs, a handful of tables and a simple tent, the setting was intimate but filled with love and intention.—
Tereza Shkurtaj,
PEOPLE,
7 Sep. 2025
-
And one of these, for those of us accustomed to British conventions but who follow the game in continental Europe, is the simple passage of time.—
Michael Cox,
New York Times,
6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Because of that, thick fire walls were installed throughout the plant's buildings.—
Eileen Falkenberg-Hull,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 Sep. 2025
-
The air was damp and listless and the heat was something to wade through, thick as molasses.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
And when that fish, in turn, succumbs to the claws of a bald eagle, its DDT dense meat becomes a poisonous lunch for an oblivious bird.—
Sophie Hartley,
IndyStar,
3 Sep. 2025
-
On top of being a fantastic collectible card game that's always refreshing its mechanics, the dense multiverse-building and sprawling lore, the cards themselves are traditionally gorgeous to look at.—
Fran Ruiz,
Space.com,
2 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Any suggestion that this is some kind of victory for Combs is ignorant.—
KiMi Robinson,
USA Today,
27 Aug. 2025
-
In this case, the problem is ethics in the medical profession, as young doctor Andrew Manson (Robert Donat) moves from idealism to disillusionment and back again when faced with ignorant patients who are skeptical of his conclusions, economic hardship, and crooked colleagues.—
Jim Hemphill,
IndieWire,
25 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Obtuse.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/obtuse. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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