abstruse adj : difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge; "the professor's lectures were so abstruse that students tended to avoid them"; "a deep metaphysical theory"; "some recondite problem in historiography" [syn: deep, recondite]

English

Pronunciation

• /əbˈstruːs/

Etymology

abstrusus, past participle of abstrudere to thrust away, conceal; ab, abs + trudere to thrust; compare abstrus. See Threat.

Adjective

1. remote from apprehension; difficult to comprehend or understand; recondite; as, abstruse learning.
   • 1748. David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 13.

     It is certain that the easy and obvious philosophy will always, with the generality of mankind, have the preference above the accurate and abstruse;

2. concealed or hidden out of the way.

   Quotations

   • The eternal eye whose sight discerns Abstrusest thoughts. — #:* Profound and abstruse topics. - Milman

Translations

Italian

Adjective

abstruse

1. Feminine plural form of astruso

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