1
as in esoteric
difficult for one of ordinary knowledge or intelligence to understand
grammatical rules that seem arcane to generations of students who were never taught grammar in the first place
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Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in cryptic
having an often intentionally veiled or uncertain meaning
the rebate form uses arcane language, the only purpose of which seems to be to disqualify buyers from actually getting a rebate
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in mysterious
being beyond one's powers to know, understand, or explain
my predecessor in this job obviously had his own arcane system for filing things, and so I haven't a clue as to where anything is
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of arcane
At the time, the internet was an arcane world that made everyone an alien.
—
Literary Hub, 28 Jan. 2026
Mega-farmers, environmentalists and everyday folk read her site to learn about arcane water district policies, the effect of those policies on farmland and fish and for insights on the political intrigue that powers the San Joaquin Valley.
—James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2026
The cat had blood pouring from its mouth and was surrounded by arcane symbols scrawled on the walls.
—Emma Seiwell, Mercury News, 15 Jan. 2026
Filoni is known for his intimate and arcane franchise knowledge, which served him well in animation, but less so in live-action.
—Aaron Couch, HollywoodReporter, 15 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for arcane
Literary Hub, 28 Jan. 2026
Mega-farmers, environmentalists and everyday folk read her site to learn about arcane water district policies, the effect of those policies on farmland and fish and for insights on the political intrigue that powers the San Joaquin Valley.
—James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2026
The cat had blood pouring from its mouth and was surrounded by arcane symbols scrawled on the walls.
—Emma Seiwell, Mercury News, 15 Jan. 2026
Filoni is known for his intimate and arcane franchise knowledge, which served him well in animation, but less so in live-action.
—Aaron Couch, HollywoodReporter, 15 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for arcane
Recent Examples of Synonyms for arcane
Adjective
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With the Games comes the quadrennial tradition of casual sports fans becoming experts in esoteric sports—for a couple weeks, at least.—
Louisa Thomas,
New Yorker,
6 Feb. 2026
-
Much of the group’s cosmology derives from The Urantia Book, a mishmash of Christianity, metaphysics, and esoteric spirituality, that was purportedly written by celestial beings and published anonymously in 1955.—
Jane Borden,
Rolling Stone,
5 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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At the end of the video, Swift shows a clip from their appearance on the Graham Norton Show in which Gleeson jokes about wanting to star in a music video and Swift giving a surprised, but cryptic smile.—
Lexy Perez,
HollywoodReporter,
6 Feb. 2026
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Bryony hopes that sharing her story will help spread awareness about cryptic pregnancies, or stealth pregnancies.—
Sam Gillette,
PEOPLE,
29 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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For several months, a mysterious sign displayed in the windows of vacant storefront in Shorewood has intrigued passersby along Capitol Drive.—
Claudia Levens,
jsonline.com,
10 Feb. 2026
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To anyone who's gotten a bill three months after treatment only to find mysterious charges, the idea seemed intuitive.—
Darius Tahir,
NPR,
10 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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For the journalist’s son, Anshul Chhatrapati, the verdict was a moment of profound relief after a fight extending nearly two decades.—
Rhea Mogul,
CNN Money,
6 Feb. 2026
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Cuddihy and his colleagues theorized that these regular encounters with fire—and their unwanted consequences—would inevitably have a profound effect on any species over tens of thousands of years.—
Andrew Paul,
Popular Science,
5 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Çatak’s anti-state message acquires an ambiguous power as the movie wends onward, with an enigmatic final shot that finds Aziz tasting clear-skies freedom but still from behind confines of a sort.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
13 Feb. 2026
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Wuthering Heights simultaneously puts too much malevolence on Nelly’s shoulders while also making her final decisions sort of nonsensical, even ambiguous.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
13 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The Dera was founded in 1948 by the mystic Mastana Balochistani in the Haryana city of Sirsa, near the northern state’s borders with Punjab, India’s breadbasket, and the desert state of Rajasthan.—
Rhea Mogul,
CNN Money,
6 Feb. 2026
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Although Nuccio is as down to earth as anyone could be, and definitely not a mystic, there can be no disputing his stature as a remarkable man.—
Joshua Siskin,
Oc Register,
8 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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And third, the center of the nebula is obscure, with what looks like a wispy cloud in the foreground blocking us from seeing the central star itself.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
11 Feb. 2026
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The group that organized the convoy was connected to a broader network of nurses, doctors, and volunteers, which had been coördinating dozens of surgeries for protesters marooned in their homes, in obscure corners of the country.—
Cora Engelbrecht,
New Yorker,
11 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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And with several shots of the sneaker throughout the park, the resemblance between the two is uncanny.—
Ian Servantes,
Footwear News,
10 Feb. 2026
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Recently, Boston Dynamics explained Atlas’s uncanny ground-recovery move, revealing why the humanoid rises with contortions rather than standing upright.—
Jijo Malayil,
Interesting Engineering,
9 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Arcane.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/arcane. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.
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