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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

obfuscate.

To make dark; to overshadow.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈɒbfəskeɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɑbfəskeɪt/General-American, dialectal/ˈɑbfjuskeɪt/General-American, dialectal/ˈɒbfəskeɪt/Canada, dialectal
  1. To make dark; to overshadow.

  2. To deliberately make more confusing in order to conceal the truth.

    obfuscate facts
    Can weakness be really obfuscated?
  3. To alter code while preserving its behavior but concealing its structure and intent.

    We need to obfuscate these classes before we ship the final release.
Where this word comes from

The adjective is first attested in 1487, in Middle English, the verb in 1536; either borrowed from Middle French obfusquer, offusquer, from Old French offusquer, or directly from Late Latin obfuscātus, offuscātus, the perfect passive participle of obfuscō, offuscō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from Latin ob- + fuscō (“to darken”). Doublet of dusken (“to darken, make obscure”).

adj/ˈɒbfəskeɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɑbfəskeɪt/General-American, dialectal/ˈɑbfjuskeɪt/General-American, dialectal/ˈɒbfəskeɪt/Canada, dialectal
  1. Obfuscated; darkened; obscured.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

The adjective is first attested in 1487, in Middle English, the verb in 1536; either borrowed from Middle French obfusquer, offusquer, from Old French offusquer, or directly from Late Latin obfuscātus, offuscātus, the perfect passive participle of obfuscō, offuscō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from Latin ob- + fuscō (“to darken”). Doublet of dusken (“to darken, make obscure”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.