Loading page
say it: ahb-TOOS
obtuse is an adjective meaning "of an angle; between 90 and 180 degrees". It carries 4 recorded senses.
of an angle; between 90 and 180 degrees
(of a leaf shape) rounded at the apex
lacking in insight or discernment
“too obtuse to grasp the implications of his behavior”
“a purblind oligarchy that flatly refused to see that history was condemning it to the dustbin”
slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity
“so dense he never understands anything I say to him”
“never met anyone quite so dim”
“although dull at classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly quick”
“dumb officials make some really dumb decisions”
“he was either normally stupid or being deliberately obtuse”
“worked with the slow students”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for obtuse come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.