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Obscure vs Imperfect - What's the difference?

obscure | imperfect | Related terms |

Obscure is a related term of imperfect.


As adjectives the difference between obscure and imperfect

is that obscure is dark, faint or indistinct while imperfect is not perfect.

As a verb obscure

is (label) to render obscure; to darken; to make dim; to keep in the dark; to hide; to make less visible, intelligible, legible, glorious, beautiful, or illustrious.

As a noun imperfect is

something having a minor flaw.

obscure

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Dark, faint or indistinct.
  • * (Dante Alighieri), , 1, 1-2
  • I found myself in an obscure wood.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xx. 20
  • His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
  • Hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • The obscure bird / Clamoured the livelong night.
  • * Sir J. Davies
  • the obscure corners of the earth
  • Difficult to understand.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The machine of a new soul , passage=The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure .}}

    Usage notes

    * The comparative obscurer and superlative obscurest, though formed by valid rules for English, are less common than more obscure' and ' most obscure .

    Synonyms

    * enigmatic * mysterious * esoteric

    Antonyms

    * clear

    Derived terms

    * obscurable * unobscurable

    Verb

    (obscur)
  • (label) To render obscure; to darken; to make dim; to keep in the dark; to hide; to make less visible, intelligible, legible, glorious, beautiful, or illustrious.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's oak, with obscured lights.
  • * (William Wake) (1657-1737)
  • There is scarce any duty which has been so obscured by the writings of learned men as this.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
  • , passage=But Richmond
  • (label) To hide, put out of sight etc.
  • * (Bill Watterson), Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat , page 62
  • I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity.
  • To conceal oneself; to hide.
  • * (Beaumont and Fletcher) (1603-1625)
  • How! There's bad news. / I must obscure , and hear it.

    imperfect

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not perfect.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect .
  • * Milton
  • Nothing imperfect or deficient left / Of all that he created.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Then say not man's imperfect , Heaven in fault; / Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought.
  • (botany) unisexual: having either male (with stamens) or female (with pistil) flowers, but not with both.
  • (taxonomy) Known or expected to be polyphyletic, as of a form taxon.
  • (obsolete) Lacking some elementary organ that is essential to successful or normal activity.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • He stammered like a child, or an amazed, imperfect person.

    Synonyms

    * (not perfect) defective, fallible, faultful

    Antonyms

    * (not perfect) perfect, infallible, faultless * (unisexual) perfect

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something having a minor flaw
  • (grammar) A tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous.