Obfuscate
verb
To make something difficult to understand.
The computer code was obfuscated to prevent unauthorized access.
Often appears as...
- obfuscate the issue
- obfuscate the truth
Usage tips
Technical
verb
To confuse someone or prevent them from understanding something.
He criticized the company for trying to obfuscate the issue.
Often appears as...
- obfuscate the situation
- obfuscate their intentions
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
verb
To make something difficult to understand.
The computer code was obfuscated to prevent unauthorized access.
Often appears as...
- obfuscate the issue
- obfuscate the truth
Usage tips
Technical
verb
To confuse someone or prevent them from understanding something.
He criticized the company for trying to obfuscate the issue.
Often appears as...
- obfuscate the situation
- obfuscate their intentions
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Intentional Confusion
Obfuscate often implies someone is purposely making things unclear.
Politicians sometimes obfuscate their messages to hide the true intentions.
Pro Tip 2/3Technical Usage
It's frequently used in technical or formal contexts to indicate intentional complexity.
Software developers obfuscate code to protect intellectual property.
Pro Tip 3/3Negative Connotation
It often carries a negative connotation, suggesting dishonesty or evasion.
He tried to obfuscate his role in the scandal.
Pro Tip 1/3Intentional Confusion
Obfuscate often implies someone is purposely making things unclear.
Politicians sometimes obfuscate their messages to hide the true intentions.
Pro Tip 2/3Technical Usage
It's frequently used in technical or formal contexts to indicate intentional complexity.
Software developers obfuscate code to protect intellectual property.
Pro Tip 3/3Negative Connotation
It often carries a negative connotation, suggesting dishonesty or evasion.
He tried to obfuscate his role in the scandal.
Pro Tip 1/3Intentional Confusion
Obfuscate often implies someone is purposely making things unclear.
Politicians sometimes obfuscate their messages to hide the true intentions.
Pro Tip 2/3Technical Usage
It's frequently used in technical or formal contexts to indicate intentional complexity.
Software developers obfuscate code to protect intellectual property.
Pro Tip 3/3Negative Connotation
It often carries a negative connotation, suggesting dishonesty or evasion.
He tried to obfuscate his role in the scandal.
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Video examples
How to build a greener,...
the job of senior management and a highly effective return on their on their time it's about tilting the playing field so that it's tilted in your direction keeps out competition keeps the advantages and licenses you have in your hands and sometimes it means also obfuscating
Video examples
A letter to all who have...
about how what you are actually experiencing was flexibility and freedom. Language is one of the only things that we truly share, and I sometimes used this joint inheritance to obfuscate
Video examples
How to build a greener,...
the job of senior management and a highly effective return on their on their time it's about tilting the playing field so that it's tilted in your direction keeps out competition keeps the advantages and licenses you have in your hands and sometimes it means also obfuscating
Video examples
A letter to all who have...
about how what you are actually experiencing was flexibility and freedom. Language is one of the only things that we truly share, and I sometimes used this joint inheritance to obfuscate
Example 1 of 2
Quote examples
Sal Khan
American Educator
The math you need for most of finance is ninth-grade algebra, and most people feel reasonably comfortable with that. But I think the financial world there has been - I don't know if it's by design, or this is how it's evolved - there are bad actors who have wanted to obfuscate because you can benefit from the lack of transparency.
Quote examples
Melissa Gilbert
American Actress
My mother, whom I love dearly, has continually revised my life story within the context of a complicated family history that includes more than the usual share of divorce, step-children, dysfunction, and obfuscation. I've spent most of my adult life attempting to deconstruct that history and separate fact from fiction.
Quote examples
Anand Giridharadas
American Author
Language is one of the only things that we truly share, and I sometimes used this joint inheritance to obfuscate and deflect and justify myself: to re-brand what was good for me as something appearing good for us both, when I threw around terms like 'the sharing economy' and 'disruption' and 'global resourcing.
Quote examples
Ricky Jay
American Actor
To obfuscate the reconstruction of the effect - when a magician is fooled by another magician doing magic. In my career that's not been the major passion, but it's been the passion of a number of my mentors. The crowning achievement for them would be to create magic good enough to fool other magicians.
Quote examples
Julian Baggini
British Author
The mark of a mature, psychologically healthy mind is indeed the ability to live with uncertainty and ambiguity, but only as much as there really is. Uncertainty is no virtue when the facts are clear, and ambiguity is mere obfuscation when more precise terms are applicable.
Quote examples
Johann Johannsson
Icelander Composer
Music should resonate with people on an emotional level. That's one of the criterions I use for an idea. Does it speak simply and directly without obfuscation and without being unnecessarily complex or obscure?
Quote examples
Howard Gardner
American Psychologist
We are not going to get rid of the digital media - nor should we want to - and so our challenge is to use the media to determine the truth, rather than to let the media obfuscate matters.
Quote examples
Don Tapscott
Canadian Businessman
The blanket assertion that corporations are people obfuscates the complex issues at play in the changing business world. Corporation are institutions. People are people.
Quote examples
Pavel Durov
Russian Businessman
WhatsApp deliberately obfuscates their apps' binaries to make sure no one is able to study them thoroughly.
Quote examples
Jeff Weiner
American Businessman
I've come to learn there is a virtuous cycle to transparency and a very vicious cycle of obfuscation.
Quote examples
Sal Khan
American Educator
The math you need for most of finance is ninth-grade algebra, and most people feel reasonably comfortable with that. But I think the financial world there has been - I don't know if it's by design, or this is how it's evolved - there are bad actors who have wanted to obfuscate because you can benefit from the lack of transparency.
Quote examples
Melissa Gilbert
American Actress
My mother, whom I love dearly, has continually revised my life story within the context of a complicated family history that includes more than the usual share of divorce, step-children, dysfunction, and obfuscation. I've spent most of my adult life attempting to deconstruct that history and separate fact from fiction.
Quote examples
Anand Giridharadas
American Author
Language is one of the only things that we truly share, and I sometimes used this joint inheritance to obfuscate and deflect and justify myself: to re-brand what was good for me as something appearing good for us both, when I threw around terms like 'the sharing economy' and 'disruption' and 'global resourcing.
Quote examples
Ricky Jay
American Actor
To obfuscate the reconstruction of the effect - when a magician is fooled by another magician doing magic. In my career that's not been the major passion, but it's been the passion of a number of my mentors. The crowning achievement for them would be to create magic good enough to fool other magicians.
Quote examples
Julian Baggini
British Author
The mark of a mature, psychologically healthy mind is indeed the ability to live with uncertainty and ambiguity, but only as much as there really is. Uncertainty is no virtue when the facts are clear, and ambiguity is mere obfuscation when more precise terms are applicable.
Quote examples
Johann Johannsson
Icelander Composer
Music should resonate with people on an emotional level. That's one of the criterions I use for an idea. Does it speak simply and directly without obfuscation and without being unnecessarily complex or obscure?
Quote examples
Howard Gardner
American Psychologist
We are not going to get rid of the digital media - nor should we want to - and so our challenge is to use the media to determine the truth, rather than to let the media obfuscate matters.
Quote examples
Don Tapscott
Canadian Businessman
The blanket assertion that corporations are people obfuscates the complex issues at play in the changing business world. Corporation are institutions. People are people.
Quote examples
Pavel Durov
Russian Businessman
WhatsApp deliberately obfuscates their apps' binaries to make sure no one is able to study them thoroughly.
Quote examples
Jeff Weiner
American Businessman
I've come to learn there is a virtuous cycle to transparency and a very vicious cycle of obfuscation.
Example 1 of 10
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