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Abstruse vs Opacity - What's the difference?

abstruse | opacity |

As an adjective abstruse

is concealed or hidden out of the way; secret.

As a noun opacity is

the state or quality of being opaque, not allowing light to pass through.

abstruse

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • (obsolete) Concealed or hidden out of the way; secret.
  • * 1612 , Thomas Shelton (translator), Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish author), The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-Errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha , Part 4, Chapter 15, page 500:
    • O who is he that could carrie newes to our olde father, that thou wert but aliue, although thou wert hidden in the most abstruse dungeons of Barbarie; for his riches, my brothers and mine would fetch thee from thence.
  • * 1667 , , Paradise Lost :
    • The eternal eye whose sight discerns abstrusest thoughts.
  • Difficult to comprehend or understand; recondite; obscure; esoteric.
  • * 1548 , Bishop John Hooper, A Declaration of the Ten Holy Comaundementes of Almygthye God , Chapter 17 Curiosity, Page 218:
    • ...at the end of his cogitacions, fyndithe more abstruse , and doutfull obiections then at the beginning...
  • * 1748 , David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. ยง 13.
    • It is certain that the easy and obvious philosophy will always, with the generality of mankind, have the preference above the accurate and abstruse ;
  • * 1855 , , History of Latin Christianity :
    • Profound and abstruse topics.

    Usage notes

    * More abstruse and most abstruse are the preferred forms over abstruser and abstrusest.

    Derived terms

    * abstrusely * abstruseness

    Related terms

    * abstrude * abstrusion

    References

    External links

    * * ----

    opacity

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The state or quality of being opaque, not allowing light to pass through
    • We could not see the sandbar due to the opacity of the muddy water.
  • (uncountable) The state or quality of being inaccessible to understanding
    • The opacity of these decisions is troubling.
  • (optics, countable) A measure of relative impenetrability to electromagnetic radiation such as light.
    • The opacity of a clean glass window is near zero.

    Synonyms

    * opaqueness

    Coordinate terms

    * transparency