abstruse or obtuse

Most people first encounter “obtuse” in geometry class, where it labels an angle of more than 90 degrees. Imagine what sort of blunt arrowhead that kind of angle would make and you will understand why it also has a figurative meaning of “dull, stupid.” But people often mix the word up with “abstruse,” which means “difficult to understand.”When you mean to criticize something for being needlessly complex or baffling, the word you need is not “obtuse,” but “abstruse.”

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• tripple vs triple
• as less as possible vs as little as possible
• whimp vs wimp
• all for not vs all for naught
• below table vs table below
• in route vs en route
• tragedy vs travesty
• stood vs stayed
• basicly vs basically
• greatful vs grateful

Definitions

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• s  difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge
  the professor's lectures were so abstruse that students tended to avoid them

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• a  of an angle; between 90 and 180 degrees
• s  (of a leaf shape) rounded at the apex
• s  lacking in insight or discernment
  too obtuse to grasp the implications of his behavior
• s  slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity
  he was either normally stupid or being deliberately obtuse

News & Articles

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• How to Create Codes That Even the NSA Can't Break
  In a previous post I described mathematicians' ongoing search for key properties of prime numbers. That effort may seem to belong entirely within the realm of pure mathematics; but surprisingly, the importance of primes goes far beyond the abstruse obsessions of ivory-tower mathematicians. In fact, the use of prime numbers underlies some of the most dramatic events in the news these past weeks ...
  July 31, 2013 - Discover
• How to Create Codes That Even the NSA Can't Break
  In a previous post I described mathematicians' ongoing search for key properties of prime numbers. That effort may seem to belong entirely within the realm of pure mathematics; but surprisingly, the importance of primes goes far beyond the abstruse obsessions of ivory-tower mathematicians. In fact, the use of prime numbers underlies some of the most dramatic events in the news these past weeks ...
  July 31, 2013 - Discover

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• Album Review: The Lonely Island, “The Wack Album”
  The Lonely Island has returned with another obtuse comedy album that pokes fun at a variety of modern trends and genres—but mostly rap.
  June 11, 2013 - Denver Post
• How the Haswell Chip Makes the New MacBook Air Last 12 Hours
  New chips should excite you. Instead, the news reports you read whenever some new microprocessor is released are the dullest things in the world. They are obtuse and inscrutable, a mish-mash of numbers and acronyms for technologies you can’t really wrap your head around.
  June 11, 2013 - Wired News
• Album Review: The Lonely Island, “The Wack Album”
  The Lonely Island has returned with another obtuse comedy album that pokes fun at a variety of modern trends and genres—but mostly rap.
  June 11, 2013 - Denver Post