What's the difference between inscrutable and obscure?

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.

Obscure


Definition:

  • (superl.) Covered over, shaded, or darkened; destitute of light; imperfectly illuminated; dusky; dim.
  • (superl.) Of or pertaining to darkness or night; inconspicuous to the sight; indistinctly seen; hidden; retired; remote from observation; unnoticed.
  • (superl.) Not noticeable; humble; mean.
  • (superl.) Not easily understood; not clear or legible; abstruse or blind; as, an obscure passage or inscription.
  • (superl.) Not clear, full, or distinct; clouded; imperfect; as, an obscure view of remote objects.
  • (a.) To render obscure; to darken; to make dim; to keep in the dark; to hide; to make less visible, intelligible, legible, glorious, beautiful, or illustrious.
  • (v. i.) To conceal one's self; to hide; to keep dark.
  • (n.) Obscurity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This diagnosis was obscured by the absence of cutaneous, oropharyngeal, and respiratory involvement.
  • (2) The mechanism of ACTH action on brain catecholamine metabolism is still obscure, however, an increased release of the NA to ACTH peptides is very likely in the light of the present observations.
  • (3) However, peptide bonds between 193 and 194, and 194 and 195 were cleaved in the presence of mAb 1C3 as easily as in the presence of mAb 31A4, suggesting that the region of residues 200 to 202 was obscured by, or within the antibody binding site, but that the region of residues 193 to 195 was not.
  • (4) The physician's approach to the differential diagnosis of obscure, atypical pneumonias has changed.
  • (5) The thigh and hip manifestations can obscure the primary intra-abdominal process either due to the obvious emphysema or to the obtunded abdominal signs secondary to associated neuropathy.
  • (6) While tonic pupil and reduced sweating can be attributed to the affection of postganglionic cholinergic parasympathetic and sympathetic fibres projecting to the iris and sweat glands, respectively, the pathogenesis of diminished or lost tendon jerks remains obscure.
  • (7) It is found that generic averages obscure some rather substantial differences at the species level for both Cercopithecus and Cercocebus.
  • (8) Although the pathophysiology of the pancreatic injury is obscure, the lack of other etiological factors and temporal association of the pancreatitis with acetaminophen-induced hepatic and renal toxicity suggest a causal relationship.
  • (9) Because reticulocytes contain a pool of uncombined alpha chains which might have obscured the demonstration of an alpha chain-dependent mechanism for beta-chain synthesis, subsequent studies were done with bone marrow cells.
  • (10) However, the mechanism by which Ag II is able to modulate anterior pituitary secretion still remains obscure.
  • (11) Other causes were 20 (13%) with cerebrovascular diseases, 30 (20%) hepatic failure and 11 (8%) were of miscellaneous and obscure causes.
  • (12) In such a case with a large hematoma, the presence of a tumor may be obscured on CT scan and angiography.
  • (13) However, the difficulty still remains that the latter may be obscured by differences not related to thermostability etc.
  • (14) The activating mechanism of the condition still remains obscure.
  • (15) Its language is “archaic and obscure”, the commission says.
  • (16) Clofibrate, an antilipidemic drug that acts by a still obscure mechanism, is known to specifically increase up to 30-fold the activity of the hepatic cytochrome P-450 isozyme that omega-hydroxlates lauric acid.
  • (17) On the electron microscopy, the sarcomere was shortened and Z-line was partly obscure.
  • (18) Photographs of 82 boys from the Harpenden Growth Study were measured at ages 5 to 18 years, in an order that obscured which photographs were of the same boy at different ages.
  • (19) Although the K+ concentration of the contents of the GI tract as well as the K+ transport by the portal vein were increased, the source of the excess K+ remains obscure.
  • (20) The effects of long-term exposure of humans to formaldehyde, however, are more obscure.