difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge; "the professor's lectures were so abstruse that students tended to avoid them"; "a deep metaphysical theory"; "some recondite problem in historiography"
Used in a Sentence
abstruse
How to use abstruse in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for abstruse.
Editorial note
A lot of these articles use abstruse acronyms.
Examples13
Definitions1
Parts of speech1
Quick take
difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge; "the professor's lectures were so abstruse that students tended to avoid them"; "a deep metaphysical theory"; "some recondite problem in historiography"
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of abstruse gathered in one view.
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for abstruse.
adjective
difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge; "the professor's lectures were so abstruse that students tended to avoid them"; "a deep metaphysical theory"; "some recondite problem in historiography"
Example sentences
A lot of these articles use abstruse acronyms.
It's supposed to tell you something new, but instead it's abstruse and nerdy like hell.
Gaining a sense of privacy is an abstruse and opaque task.
Ideally, studying abstruse man pages to avert disaster wouldn't be required of new users.
"When you make a language operate closely to the metal, you can expect the syntax to be more abstruse"It's the exact opposite.
A commentator from Die Zeit newspaper tersely summed up the intentionally abstruse wording of the new rules.
Abstract existing functions within PHP to the point of them being abstruse and then spend the rest of your day trying to make sense of the non-existent documentation.
That's not to say you cannot convey many useful intuitions to students without the somewhat abstruse formal machinery.
But in that case, look what you're doing: you're walking into a forum on hacking with highly, _highly_ abstruse jargon that even the average English-speaking philosopher does not understand.
Normal banks charge you, but at least they are explicit about what they are charging you, whereas this one charges you in an abstruse way that you need training as an economist in order to understand fully.
" I also allude to his company's competence using abstruse engineering language: "I've worked with your products before, and already faced some of these 'unique challenges' you promise.
It's the same way we use to determine who is allowed to opt out and read all day, who is allowed to opt out and go on lots of vacations, and who is allowed to opt out and study something abstruse in college for four years.
How are ideologically-pure statements -- extracted from a fantasyland where abstruse notions matter and all lines are perfectly straight -- considered a positive contribution?
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use abstruse in a sentence?
A lot of these articles use abstruse acronyms.
What does abstruse mean?
difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge; "the professor's lectures were so abstruse that students tended to avoid them"; "a deep metaphysical theory"; "some recondite problem in historiography"
What part of speech is abstruse?
abstruse is commonly used as adjective.