Obtuse vs Abstruse - What's the difference?
obtuse | abstruse |
Blunt; not sharp.
Intellectually dull or dim-witted.
Indirect or circuitous.
Of sound: deadened or muffled.
(geometry) Of an angle: greater than 90 degrees but less than 180 degrees.
(geometry) Of a triangle: with one obtuse angle.
(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:
* 1667 , , Paradise Lost :
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:
* 1748 , David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. ยง 13.
* 1855 , , History of Latin Christianity :
As adjectives the difference between obtuse and abstruse
is that obtuse is blunt; not sharp while abstruse is concealed or hidden out of the way; secret.obtuse
English
Adjective
(en-adj)Synonyms
* (intellectually dull ): dense, dim, dim-witted, thick (informal) * (of a sound ): deadened, muffled * (blunt ): blunt, dull * (of a triangle ): obtuse-angledAntonyms
* (intellectually dull ): bright, intelligent, on the ball, quick off the mark, quick-witted, sharp, smart * (of a sound ): clear * (blunt ): pointed, sharp * (of an angle ): acute * (of a triangle ): acute, acute-angledExternal links
* * *Anagrams
*Quotations
* (English Citations of "obtuse") ----abstruse
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- 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.
- The eternal eye whose sight discerns abstrusest thoughts.
- ...at the end of his cogitacions, fyndithe more abstruse , and doutfull obiections then at the beginning...
- It is certain that the easy and obvious philosophy will always, with the generality of mankind, have the preference above the accurate and abstruse ;
- Profound and abstruse topics.