What's the difference between obscure and obtuse?

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.

Obtuse


Definition:

  • (superl.) Not pointed or acute; blunt; -- applied esp. to angles greater than a right angle, or containing more than ninety degrees.
  • (superl.) Not having acute sensibility or perceptions; dull; stupid; as, obtuse senses.
  • (superl.) Dull; deadened; as, obtuse sound.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Extensive research among the Afghan National Army – 68 focus groups – and US military personnel alike concluded: "One group sees the other as a bunch of violent, reckless, intrusive, arrogant, self-serving profane, infidel bullies hiding behind high technology; and the other group [the US soldiers] generally views the former as a bunch of cowardly, incompetent, obtuse, thieving, complacent, lazy, pot-smoking, treacherous, and murderous radicals.
  • (2) Vessel attempted: Left anterior descending (3), circumflex (4), obtuse marginal (2), diagonal (1), right coronary artery (3), and internal thoracic artery (1).
  • (3) The lesions classified as distal were located in left anterior descending (LAD) artery beyond the origin of second diagonal (D2), left circumflex (LCx) after the main obtuse marginal (OM) and right coronary artery (RCA) after the origin of acute marginal branch.
  • (4) The vascular diameter of obtuse marginal coronary arteries was determined by means of gated color arteriography (injection of patent blue dye).
  • (5) There were still quite a few Marxists at Oxford in those days – Terry Eagleton and his clique were seemingly bolted to the same table in the King’s Arms the entire time I  was an undergraduate – but while I was silly and naive enough to believe in the purifying, energising effects of violent revolution, I wasn’t obtuse enough to think of dialectical materialism as anything more than a powerful heuristic.
  • (6) An obtuse chest wall intersecting angle and the length of the neighboring borders of the tumor and chest wall were of limited value.
  • (7) They analyze the radiographs according to thorough criterions, described in the text, and come to the conclusion that intrahepatic biliary ducts in cirrhotic livers present serious alterations, represented by distorted ducts with focal stenoses, nodular impressions, wall irregularities, increase of the number of obtuse angles and poor peripheral filling, which confer a disharmonic aspect to the intra-hepatic biliary ducts of these organs.
  • (8) Such an ill-informed and illogical standpoint is a worrying sign of ideologically driven obtuseness.
  • (9) By depressing the fundus of the stomach, the angle of His was made more obtuse and the flap valve component eliminated.
  • (10) 7) As a result of cephalometric diagnosis, the nasion appeared to be protruded, therefore maxillary and mandibular seemed to be relatively retracted, and the gonial angle was obtuse.
  • (11) On cooling, there is a substantial change in the unit cell beta-angle from obtuse (93.3 degrees) to acute (85.5 degrees) which involves a shearing motion of 2.5 A between adjacent molecular layers.
  • (12) Patient 2 (62-year-old woman) underwent simultaneous operation of both right nephrectomy and triple aortocoronary bypass grafting (saphenous vein grafts to obtuse marginal branch and right coronary artery, and left internal mammary artery to left anterior descending artery).
  • (13) Laser angioplasty of the vein graft to the obtuse marginal branch reduced the first of three sequential lesions from 60% to 40%, the second lesion from 90% to none and the third from 60% to 20% without the need for balloon angioplasty.
  • (14) The subaortal cone and deferent part of the left ventricular axes make an obtuse angle; the axes of the subpulmonary and subaortal cones have a cross direction.
  • (15) In comparison with white norms, the Chinese nose was less prominent (P < .01), the nasolabial angle was less obtuse (P < .01), both the upper and lower lips were more protrusive (P < .05), the upper lip curvature was greater (P < .01), and the soft-tissue chin thickness was less (P < .05).
  • (16) The cleft group differed from the control group in several major respects: (1) Their over-all growth trend showed a more downward or vertical direction; (2) The cranial base angle was more flattened; (3) The maxilla was smaller and was located in a more posterior and upward position; (4) Ramal height was shorter and the gonial angle was more obtuse.
  • (17) The obstacle could yet be an inability on the part of so many enthusiasts to work together, and an obtuse academic dismissal of a technology that can release to the world a new delight in the past.
  • (18) A difference in the appearance of the hypothalamic and infundibular recesses in the primary empty sella group with SVS herniation (dilated recesses and formation of an obtuse angle) and in the secondary empty sella group with SVS herniation (nondilated recesses and formation of an acute angle) was observed.
  • (19) An obtuse or sharp angle between duct planes can lead to better performance of a particular labyrinth because the "external impulses" in the different ducts may amplify or compensate each other.
  • (20) The nasolabial angle became more obtuse increasing from 80.7 degrees to 90.7 degrees.