obscurity

noun

1. Absence or deficiency of light: dark, darkness, dimness, duskiness, murkiness, obscureness. See light/darkness.
2. The quality or state of being obscure: anonymity, namelessness. See knowledge/ignorance.
3. The quality or state of being ambiguous: ambiguity, ambiguousness, cloudiness, equivocalness, indefiniteness, nebulousness, obscureness, uncertainty, unclearness, vagueness. See clear/unclear.

Definition: incomprehensibility
Antonyms: clarity

n

Definition: insignificance
Antonyms: fame

The noun has 3 meanings:

Meaning #1: the quality of being unclear or abstruse and hard to understand
  Synonyms: obscureness, abstruseness, reconditeness
  Antonym: clarity (meaning #1)

Meaning #2: an obscure and unimportant standing; not well known
  Antonym: prominence (meaning #1)

Meaning #3: the state of being indistinct or indefinite for lack of adequate illumination
  Synonym: obscureness

Quotes:

"Obscurity brings safety." - Aesop

"The street to obscurity is paved with athletes who can perform great feats before friendly crowds." - George Allen

"The obscure only exists that it may cease to exist. In it lies the opportunity of all victory and all progress. Whether it call itself fatality, death, night, or matter, it is the pedestal of life, of light, of liberty and the spirit. For it represents resistance -- that is to say, the fulcrum of all activity, the occasion for its development and its triumph." - Henri Frederic Amiel

"What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care." - William Blake

"The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistorical acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs." - George Eliot

"Everybody is so talented nowadays that the only people I care to honor as deserving real distinction are those who remain in obscurity." - Thomas Hardy

See more famous quotes about Obscurity