Obfuscate    (pronounced ob-fuh-skayt or ob-fus-kayt) verb


Definition

1. to make obscure or unclear; darken; make something incapable of being comprehended. 2. to confuse or bewilder.

Other Forms

Obfuscation (pronounced ob-fus-kay-shun) noun

Main Example

  • Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating made headlines last month following his blunt remarks about the Catholic church hierarchy's complicity in the sexual abuse scandal. He compared the bishops in power to the Mafia in their zeal for covering up wrongdoing and said that, instead of coming clean, they were bent on obfuscating the truth.

    Workplace Examples

  • Jay, for your presentation tomorrow, don't put too much information on the slides--just outline the main points in bullet form. As it is, most people find this issue extremely confusing. We certainly don't want to add to their obfuscation.

  • Look, emotions are beginning to run high and everyone's thinking has become a little too muddled and obfuscated. Let's break for 15 minutes, cool down, and then continue this discussion.

    Other Examples

  • your commenting: "It's not surprising that no one has a clear idea about what's going on in that department. At every meeting, their manager dumps so much complex and unnecessary data on us that he invariably ends up obfuscating the key issues."

  • to avoid taking sides on a highly charged issue, a political candidate cleverly using ambiguous language to obfuscate and thus escape controversy

  • prior to the food labeling laws that went into effect in the mid-1990s, food companies routinely resorting to obfuscation to increase a product's appeal--for instance, they would mask the presence of harmful ingredients, such as an unusually high fat content, by mentioning it amid a mass of confusing statistics in fine print

  • several hours after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, a giant cloud of smoke and dust continuing to obfuscate the Manhattan skyline

    © 2003 V.J. Singal

    This Month's Other Words

    Putative
    Apostasy and Apostate
    Atrophy
    Unfettered
    Antithesis
    Proclivity
    Vociferous

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