as in confusing
to make (something) unclear to the understanding
irrelevant matters that only serve to obfuscate the fundamental issue of guilt or innocence
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Recent Examples of obfuscating
Lawyers for the group contend that the city is willfully obfuscating to cover up its inadequate efforts to live up to its settlement.
—
Los Angeles Times, 16 Jan. 2026
The state says the foundation did this because Aerial Recovery, the nonprofit, had been obfuscating its name.
—Evan Mealins, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Oct. 2025
Some data types can be encrypted randomly, obfuscating enough of the data to stymie hackers—such as using only the last four digits of your credit to confirm your purchase identity.
—Srinivas Shekar, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Los Angeles Times, 16 Jan. 2026
The state says the foundation did this because Aerial Recovery, the nonprofit, had been obfuscating its name.
—Evan Mealins, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Oct. 2025
Some data types can be encrypted randomly, obfuscating enough of the data to stymie hackers—such as using only the last four digits of your credit to confirm your purchase identity.
—Srinivas Shekar, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for obfuscating
Verb
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Germany's exact medal count is a point of contention because Germany has not always competed in each Olympics as a unified country, which can lead to confusing medal counts.—
Aliza Chasan,
CBS News,
7 Feb. 2026
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For many, tax season can be a confusing and stressful time with lingering deadlines and confusing tax forms.—
Paige Moore,
AZCentral.com,
7 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The researchers warned that while the idea of workers taking on more tasks voluntarily could seem ideal, nonstop work has the potential to lead to problems down the line, including blurring the boundary between work and non-work, as well as burnout and cognitive fatigue.—
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez,
Fortune,
10 Feb. 2026
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The almost imperceptible pigment is an immediate boost of pore- and fine line-blurring prowess.—
Tamim Alnuweiri,
InStyle,
8 Feb. 2026
Verb
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As the decades passed, their experiments escalated into increasingly absurd inquiries, muddying the boundaries between subjective and objective reality.—
Shannon Taggart,
Artforum,
1 Feb. 2026
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This may be because the nucleus accumbens, the other reward region that some participants learned to ramp up, didn’t have the same connection to immune response, muddying the results.—
Allison Parshall,
Scientific American,
19 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Obfuscating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/obfuscating. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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