What's the difference between abstruse and inscrutable?

Abstruse


Definition:

  • (a.) Concealed or hidden out of the way.
  • (a.) Remote from apprehension; difficult to be comprehended or understood; recondite; as, abstruse learning.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Ed Miliband should be out and proud about his abstruse interests, his Masters in economics, his political obsession, his prioritising of the mental over the physical.
  • (2) Britain's sodden fields mean the debate about climate change is now no longer confined to some abstruse problem affecting glaciers in far-off countries.
  • (3) As if to underline how far leftfield Radiohead have subsequently shifted, it's followed by the instrumental Feral, which in its live incarnation – scattered rhythms overlaid with echoing vocal loops and waves of electronic noise – is arguably the most abstruse and uncommercial piece of music you're ever likely to hear booming around an arena venue.
  • (4) At its best, British public service broadcasting wants to share the best with everyone, it takes topics or themes which may seem abstruse or unapproachable – the science of the solar system, what you can learn about civilisation through physical artefacts – and then brings them to life with such conviction and creativity that they reach deep across a society.
  • (5) Thus the abstruse nomenclature in common use is avoided.
  • (6) Innovative dance music is still being made, but it exists almost entirely out of the realm of the charts: for all its ground-breaking brilliance, there have been few takers among the mainstream record-buyers for the new, deliberately abstruse, genre of "grime".
  • (7) I think the most abstruse one we've put in here is ferkidoodle."
  • (8) The lawyer among them, the ever resourceful Markus C Kerber, probably came up with the abstruse idea of supporting their case by quoting the right to resistance.
  • (9) Filesharing tools have gone from the primitive, easily monitored and abstruse (IRC or the early Napster) to a very easy, attack-resistant architecture that was built in response to entertainment industry attacks.
  • (10) Or perhaps it's just a load of bumwash with wilfully abstruse bells on.
  • (11) In a less abstruse way, Twitter has already shown itself to be a useful conduit for circumventing legal or governmental censorship.
  • (12) The origins of this type of aberrant maternal behavior remain abstruse, as do the long-term psychological effects on the child victims.
  • (13) Shenouda's hundred books and countless sermons untangled abstruse dogma in a straightforward way.
  • (14) If it sounds a little abstruse, by the way, to try to solve the feminist framing of the ancient Greeks, the idea of a sex strike has reappeared more recently, in fiction if not in fact.
  • (15) For the lay person attempting to referee the row, and having to interpret such abstruse concepts as the Gini coefficient and, as Gaffney neatly summarises, whether "the r > g inequality is amplifying the reconcentration trend", illumination is hard to discern.
  • (16) For children about to undergo surgery and for their families, anxiety caused by the abstruse procedure and the child's separation can provoke a crisis.
  • (17) Whereas the effects of Fadenoperation on adduction incomitance are perfectly clear, those on the deviation in primary position still remain very abstruse.
  • (18) This manuscript is concerned with concepts rather than abstruse details or mathematics.
  • (19) Model theory is a branch of mathematics that treats such abstruse questions as "is there another number system, different from 0,1,2, ... that satisfies all the axioms of arithmetic?"

Inscrutable


Definition:

  • (a.) Unsearchable; incapable of being searched into and understood by inquiry or study; impossible or difficult to be explained or accounted for satisfactorily; obscure; incomprehensible; as, an inscrutable design or event.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A man named Moreno Facebook Twitter Pinterest Italy's players give chase to an inscrutable Byron Moreno, whose relationship with the country was only just beginning.
  • (2) It's hard to think of an artist who has remained quite so inscrutable while releasing quite so much music.
  • (3) Angry demonstrators have noted that Putin's tears are in stark contrast to his usually inscrutable, and even callous-seeming, behaviour on other big public occasions.
  • (4) 10.40am: Meanwhile this from the Guardian's football correspondent Kevin McCarra Capello's inscrutable when you try to work out his thoughts on team selection.
  • (5) The reign of Pius XII began in the month of Czechoslovakia's rape and ran its course through the terrible years of war and the inscrutable years of uncertain peace and technical revolution which followed.
  • (6) At the booth in between the never-was of Windsor and the has-been of Detroit, the officer I happened to draw had a gruff belly and the mysterious air of intentional inscrutability, like a troll under a bridge in a fairytale.
  • (7) On previous visits, the city had presented a rather inscrutable face.
  • (8) The words “power front row” conjure images of an inscrutable Anna Wintour, but in 2014 there are a lot of globally important front rows she doesn’t sit on.
  • (9) China’s anti-hegemonic aim, expressed in almost inscrutable prose, is to secure “tolerance among civilisations” and respect for the “modes of development chosen by different countries”.
  • (10) It is rather about the abuses of power elites, in government, academia, media, the judiciary and so forth, whose agendas are often opaque even to locals, and all the more inscrutable to unsuspecting foreigners.
  • (11) The camera cuts to Algeria manager Vahid Halilhodzic, who is sitting on his bench looking most inscrutable.
  • (12) The former Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, up in the crowd, looked inscrutable but he surely approved.
  • (13) What they have in common is a tendency towards pragmatism, the ruthlessness common in national leaders and degrees of inscrutability which make it difficult to gauge where they will bend and where they will refuse to compromise.
  • (14) Another was the sight of the Queen, with trademark inscrutable expression, listening politely in the Radio 1 Live Lounge to a performance by singer Danny O'Donoghue, of the BBC talent show The Voice, and his band the Script, as they sang a cover version of David Bowie's song Heroes.
  • (15) The inscrutability of Garland – along with widespread accolades even from many conservatives – likely made him a particularly appealing candidate to Obama, as he challenges Republicans to lift their commitment to blocking any nominee to the supreme court during an election year.
  • (16) Comey entered the room at 10.02am to a chorus of clicking cameras, shook hands with chairman Richard Burr and sat behind a table, staring ahead inscrutably, his hands pressed together.
  • (17) There are campaign photographs of him, emerging from a motorcade in inscrutable shades, that ooze JFK panache.
  • (18) Opacity creates ample opportunities to hide anti-competitive, discriminatory, or simply careless conduct behind a veil of technical inscrutability.
  • (19) Exactly when and why this happened is uncertain, since Hill was always notoriously inscrutable about discussing his personal life.
  • (20) Its workings are inscrutable – near the end of this novel, Zakalwe is commanded to lose a war that he has been rather brilliantly winning on behalf of the Hegemonarchy, and he rather regretfully complies.