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
The political committee is also the subject of a recent Federal Election Commission complaint accusing it of obfuscating its expenses in violation of federal election rules.
—
Claire Heddles,
Miami Herald,
2 July 2026
When The Star requested records related to ATO being placed on probation last year, the outcome letter KU provided was heavily redacted, completely obfuscating the narrative of the hazing allegations that university investigators found to be credible.
—
Matthew Kelly
april 6,
Kansas City Star,
6 Apr. 2026
The renderings, which showed an imposing new East Wing roughly a city block long, would be longer than the West Wing and almost completely obfuscating the view of the Treasury Building from the White House's South Lawn.
—
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy,
USA Today,
26 Feb. 2026
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
Claire Heddles,
Miami Herald,
2 July 2026
When The Star requested records related to ATO being placed on probation last year, the outcome letter KU provided was heavily redacted, completely obfuscating the narrative of the hazing allegations that university investigators found to be credible.
—
Matthew Kelly
april 6,
Kansas City Star,
6 Apr. 2026
The renderings, which showed an imposing new East Wing roughly a city block long, would be longer than the West Wing and almost completely obfuscating the view of the Treasury Building from the White House's South Lawn.
—
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy,
USA Today,
26 Feb. 2026
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for obfuscating
Verb
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Why People Misunderstand This Intelligence The first mistake people make is confusing integrative intelligence with being broadly knowledgeable.
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Having said that, conversations might be confusing today.
Verb
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Waves act like moving lenses, warping light and blurring underwater objects.
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These makers are much more reticent about the risks of blurring the once fine line between browsing sites and asking a large language model a question or instructing it to take potentially sensitive actions.
Verb
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Led by music-industry mogul Irving Azoff, the Oak View Group might have found itself with new competition after Legends Global entered the mix, but on Wednesday city officials appeared uninterested in further muddying the convoluted sale of the 112-acre complex.
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The Falcons don’t want any live pass rushers muddying the pocket and putting Penix at risk before he’s completely recovered from his knee injury.
Cite this Entry
“Obfuscating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/obfuscating. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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