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Dark vs Abstruse - What's the difference?

dark | abstruse | Related terms |

Dark is a related term of abstruse.


As adjectives the difference between dark and abstruse

is that dark is having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light while abstruse is (obsolete) concealed or hidden out of the way; secret .

As a noun dark

is a complete or (more often) partial absence of light.

dark

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light.
  • :
  • *
  • *:They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Out of the gloom , passage=[Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark , look for specks of light in the villages.}}
  • #(lb) .
  • #:
  • #Deprived of sight; blind.
  • #*(John Evelyn) (1620-1706)
  • #*:He was, I think, at this time quite dark , and so had been for some years.
  • (lb) Dull or deeper in hue; not bright or light.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
  • *
  • *:If I close my eyes I can see Marie today as I saw her then. Round, rosy face, snub nose, dark hair piled up in a chignon.
  • Hidden, secret, obscure.
  • *1603-1606 , (William Shakespeare), (King Lear) , i 1
  • *:Meantime we shall express our darker purpose
  • #Not clear to the understanding; not easily through; obscure; mysterious; hidden.
  • #*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • #*:What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word?
  • #*1594- , (Richard Hooker),
  • #*:What may seem dark at the first, will afterward be found more plain.
  • #*(w) (1819-1885)
  • #*:the dark problems of existence
  • # Having racing capability not widely known.
  • Without moral or spiritual light; sinister, malign.
  • :
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:Left him at large to his own dark designs.
  • Conducive to hopelessness; depressing or bleak.
  • :
  • * (1800-1859)
  • *:A deep melancholy took possession of him, and gave a dark tinge to all his views of human nature.
  • *(Washington Irving) (1783-1859)
  • *:There is, in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.
  • Lacking progress in science or the arts; said of a time period.
  • *Sir (1614-1669)
  • *:The age wherein he lived was dark , but he / Could not want light who taught the world to see.
  • *(Arthur Hallam) (1811-1833)
  • *:The tenth century used to be reckoned by mediaeval historians as the darkest part of this intellectual night.
  • With emphasis placed on the unpleasant aspects of life; said of a work of fiction, a work of nonfiction presented in narrative form or a portion of either.
  • :
  • Synonyms

    * (relative lack of light) dim, gloomy, see also * (sinister or secret) hidden, secret, sinister, see also * (without morals) malign, sinister, see also * (of colour) deep, see also * (conducive to hopelessness) hopeless, negative, pessimistic * (lacking progress) unenlightened

    Antonyms

    * (relative lack of light) bright, light, lit * (of colour) bright, light, pale

    Derived terms

    * dark energy * dark flow * dark-haired * dark horse * dark matter * dark-skinned

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A complete or (more often) partial absence of light.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Here stood he in the dark , his sharp sword out.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=17 citation , passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […].}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Out of the gloom , passage=[Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark , look for specks of light in the villages.}}
  • (uncountable) Ignorance.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Look, what you do, you do it still i' th' dark .
  • * John Locke
  • Till we perceive by our own understandings, we are as much in the dark , and as void of knowledge, as before.
  • (uncountable) Nightfall.
  • A dark shade or dark passage in a painting, engraving, etc.
  • * Dryden
  • The lights may serve for a repose to the darks', and the ' darks to the lights.

    Derived terms

    * after dark * all cats are gray in the dark * at dark * bedarken * before dark * Dark Ages * dark blue * dark brown * dark chocolate * dark comedy * Dark Continent * dark current * dark elves * darken * dark energy * darkey * dark fiber * darkfield * dark field * dark figure * darkful * dark glasses * dark horse * dark house * darkish * dark lantern * darkle * dark matter * dark meat * dark nebula * darkness * dark reaction * dark red * darkroom * dark-room * dark room * dark-skinned * dark side * darksome * dark space * dark star * darky * endark * oh dark thirty * pitch-dark * shot in the dark * whistle in the dark

    See also

    * black * shadow

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    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. § 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

    References