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What is the difference between obscure and unknown?

obscure | unknown | Synonyms |

Unknown is a synonym of obscure.



As adjectives the difference between obscure and unknown

is that obscure is dark, faint or indistinct while unknown is not known; unidentified; not well known.

As a verb obscure

is 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 unknown is

a variable (usually x, y or z) whose value is to be found.

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

    Related terms

    * obscurity * obscuration

    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.

    External links

    * * ----

    unknown

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Not known; unidentified; not well known.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown , induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.}}

    Synonyms

    * anonymous * unfamiliar * uncharted * undiscovered * unexplored * unidentified * unnamed * unrecognized * unrevealed * unascertained * obscure * unsung

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (algebra) A variable (usually x'', ''y'' or ''z ) whose value is to be found.
  • Any fact or place about which nothing is known (as in the phrase "into the unknown").
  • A person of no identity; a nonentity
  • * 1965 , (Bob Dylan), (Like a Rolling Stone)
    • How does it feel
    To be on your own
    With no direction home
    Like a complete unknown
    Like a rolling stone?