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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

abstruse

/əbˈstɹus/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
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What does abstruse mean?

adjective

  1. Difficult to comprehend or understand; obscure.
More meanings (1)

adjective

  1. (obsolete) Concealed or hidden; secret.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/əbˈstɹus/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

Others, whose briefer span forbade their devoting themselves to studies so abstruse, beguiled the little tedium of the way with penny-papers.
Nathaniel HawthorneThe House of the Seven GablesProject Gutenberg ebook #77
Though the principles of the banking trade may appear somewhat abstruse, the practice is capable of being reduced to strict rules.
Adam SmithAn Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsProject Gutenberg ebook #3300
More book examples (3)
I select this mainly because it involves only elementary principles, requires no abstruse reasoning, and because all controversy regarding it is ended.
Andrew Dickson WhiteHistory of the Warfare of Science with Theology in ChristendomProject Gutenberg ebook #505
One great advantage of this method is that theory cannot lose itself in abstruse disquisitions, subtleties, and chimeras, but must always remain practical.
Carl von ClausewitzOn WarTranslated by J. J. (James John) GrahamProject Gutenberg ebook #1946
In a thousand ways he smoothed for me the path of knowledge and made the most abstruse inquiries clear and facile to my apprehension.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyFrankenstein; or, the modern prometheusProject Gutenberg ebook #84