Abstruse
adjective
Hard to understand due to complexity.
The scientific concepts were too abstruse for the average person to grasp.
Often appears as...
- abstruse theory
- abstruse concept
Usage tips
Academic
adjective
Hard to understand due to complexity.
The scientific concepts were too abstruse for the average person to grasp.
Often appears as...
- abstruse theory
- abstruse concept
Usage tips
Academic
Definition 1 of 1
Pro Tip 1/3Not for Casual Talk
The term 'abstruse' is typically used in formal or academic settings rather than everyday conversations.
Her thesis on quantum mechanics is rather abstruse.
Pro Tip 2/3Shows Expertise
'Abstruse' often suggests a high level of understanding or expertise is required to comprehend the subject.
The professor's abstruse lecture went over the students' heads.
Pro Tip 3/3Expect Effort
When something is described as abstruse, expect to put in effort to understand it.
I spent hours trying to decipher the abstruse text.
Pro Tip 1/3Not for Casual Talk
The term 'abstruse' is typically used in formal or academic settings rather than everyday conversations.
Her thesis on quantum mechanics is rather abstruse.
Pro Tip 2/3Shows Expertise
'Abstruse' often suggests a high level of understanding or expertise is required to comprehend the subject.
The professor's abstruse lecture went over the students' heads.
Pro Tip 3/3Expect Effort
When something is described as abstruse, expect to put in effort to understand it.
I spent hours trying to decipher the abstruse text.
Pro Tip 1/3Not for Casual Talk
The term 'abstruse' is typically used in formal or academic settings rather than everyday conversations.
Her thesis on quantum mechanics is rather abstruse.
Pro Tip 2/3Shows Expertise
'Abstruse' often suggests a high level of understanding or expertise is required to comprehend the subject.
The professor's abstruse lecture went over the students' heads.
Pro Tip 3/3Expect Effort
When something is described as abstruse, expect to put in effort to understand it.
I spent hours trying to decipher the abstruse text.
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Video examples
Karen Armstrong: Let's...
that this was so central to the religious life. Because with a few wonderful exceptions, very often when religious people come together, religious leaders come together, they're arguing about abstruse doctrines or uttering a council of hatred
Video examples
Perspective is...
create value is not actually to improve the food still further it's to get rid of the smell and clean up the floor and it's vital we understand this if that seems like a sort of strange abstruse thing in the UK the post office had a
Video examples
Karen Armstrong: Let's...
that this was so central to the religious life. Because with a few wonderful exceptions, very often when religious people come together, religious leaders come together, they're arguing about abstruse doctrines or uttering a council of hatred
Video examples
Perspective is...
create value is not actually to improve the food still further it's to get rid of the smell and clean up the floor and it's vital we understand this if that seems like a sort of strange abstruse thing in the UK the post office had a
Example 1 of 2
Quote examples
James Fenton
British Poet
For poets today or in any age, the choice is not between freedom on the one hand and abstruse French forms on the other. The choice is between the nullity and vanity of our first efforts, and the developing of a sense of idiom, form, structure, metre, rhythm, line - all the fundamental characteristics of this verbal art.
Quote examples
Rutger Bregman
Dutch Historian
The greatest sin of the academic left is that it has become fundamentally aristocratic, writing in bizarre jargon that makes cliches seem abstruse. If you can't explain your ideal to a fairly intelligent 12-year-old, it's probably your own fault.
Quote examples
Arthur Conan Doyle
British Writer
My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.
Quote examples
Alastair Reynolds
British Author
When you're writing stuff that's already clotted with neologisms and trying to get across fairly abstruse concepts, you're already putting a heavy burden on the reader.
Quote examples
Victoria Coren Mitchell
English Writer
Ed Miliband should be out and proud about his abstruse interests, his Master's in Economics, his political obsession, his prioritising of the mental over the physical.
Quote examples
Simon Sebag Montefiore
British Historian
Bolshevism was a mind-set, an idiosyncratic culture with an intolerant paranoid wordview obsessed with abstruse Marxist ideology.
Quote examples
James Fenton
British Poet
For poets today or in any age, the choice is not between freedom on the one hand and abstruse French forms on the other. The choice is between the nullity and vanity of our first efforts, and the developing of a sense of idiom, form, structure, metre, rhythm, line - all the fundamental characteristics of this verbal art.
Quote examples
Rutger Bregman
Dutch Historian
The greatest sin of the academic left is that it has become fundamentally aristocratic, writing in bizarre jargon that makes cliches seem abstruse. If you can't explain your ideal to a fairly intelligent 12-year-old, it's probably your own fault.
Quote examples
Arthur Conan Doyle
British Writer
My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.
Quote examples
Alastair Reynolds
British Author
When you're writing stuff that's already clotted with neologisms and trying to get across fairly abstruse concepts, you're already putting a heavy burden on the reader.
Quote examples
Victoria Coren Mitchell
English Writer
Ed Miliband should be out and proud about his abstruse interests, his Master's in Economics, his political obsession, his prioritising of the mental over the physical.
Quote examples
Simon Sebag Montefiore
British Historian
Bolshevism was a mind-set, an idiosyncratic culture with an intolerant paranoid wordview obsessed with abstruse Marxist ideology.
Example 1 of 6
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