abstruse

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: ab=struse

CIDE DICTIONARY

abstruse, a. [L. abstrusus, p. p. of abstrudere to thrust away, conceal; ab, abs + trudere to thrust; cf. F. abstrus. See Threat.].

•  Concealed or hidden out of the way.  [1913 Webster]

  "The eternal eye whose sight discerns
  Abstrusest thoughts."  [1913 Webster]
•  Remote from apprehension; difficult to be comprehended or understood; recondite; as, abstruse learning.  [1913 Webster]

  "Profound and abstruse topics."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

abstruse, adj. hard to understand; obscure; profound.

Derivative

abstrusely adv. abstruseness n.

Etymology

F abstruse or L abstrusus (as AB-, trusus past part. of trudere push)

THESAURUS

abstruse

Herculean, abstract, arcane, arduous, beclouded, blind, brutal, buried, civilized, close, clouded, complex, complicated, concealed, covered, covert, critical, cultivated, cultured, deep, delicate, demanding, difficile, difficult, eclipsed, educated, encyclopedic, erudite, esoteric, exacting, formidable, hairy, hard, hard-earned, hard-fought, heavy, hermetic, hid, hidden, hypothetical, ideal, in a cloud, in a fog, in eclipse, in purdah, in the wings, incommunicado, intricate, jawbreaking, knotted, knotty, laborious, latent, learned, lettered, literate, mean, mysterious, no picnic, not easy, obfuscated, obscure, obscured, occult, operose, pansophic, polyhistoric, polymath, polymathic, profound, recondite, rigorous, rough, rugged, scholarly, scholastic, secluded, secluse, secret, sequestered, set with thorns, severe, spiny, steep, strenuous, studious, thorny, ticklish, toilsome, tough, transcendental, tricky, under an eclipse, under cover, under house arrest, under wraps, underground, unknown, uphill, wicked, wise, wrapped in clouds

ROGET THESAURUS

abstruse

Unintelligibility

N unintelligibility, incomprehensibility, imperspicuity, inconceivableness, vagueness, obscurity, ambiguity, doubtful meaning, uncertainty, perplexity, spinosity, obscurum per obscurius, mystification, latency, transcendentalism, paradox, oxymoron, riddle, enigma, puzzle, diagnus vindice nodus, sealed book, steganography, freemasonry, pons asinorum, asses' bridge, high Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, jargon, unintelligible, unaccountable, undecipherable, undiscoverable, unknowable, unfathomable, incognizable, inexplicable, inscrutable, inapprehensible, incomprehensible, insolvable, insoluble, impenetrable, illegible, as Greek to one, unexplained, paradoxical, enigmatic, enigmatical, puzzling (secret), indecipherable, obscure, dark, muddy, clear as mud, seen through a mist, dim, nebulous, shrouded in mystery, opaque, dense, undiscernible, misty, hidden, latent, indefinite, garbled, perplexed, undetermined, vague, loose, ambiguous, mysterious, mystic, mystical, acroamatic, acroamatical, metempirical, transcendental, occult, recondite, abstruse, crabbed, inconceivable, inconceptible, searchless, above comprehension, beyond comprehension, past comprehension, beyond one's depth, unconceived, inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable, unpredictable, unforeseeable, it's Greek to me.