Abstruse: meaning and SAT practice

Abstruse (adjective) means: Difficult to understand; obscure or complex in meaning.

Abstruse in a sentence

The professor's abstruse lecture on quantum physics confused most of the students.

Similar: obscure, complex, cryptic, difficult. Opposite: clear, simple.

SAT-style practice: what does “abstruse” most nearly mean?

The professor's abstruse lecture on quantum physics confused most of the students.

As used in the sentence, “abstruse” most nearly means

  1. austere
  2. honest
  3. obscure
  4. identical
Show the answer

Answer: C. “abstruse” means: Difficult to understand; obscure or complex in meaning. “obscure” is the closest match in this sentence. The other choices are real SAT-level words, but none of them carries that meaning here.

On the digital SAT this is the “Words in Context” skill, about 7 of the 54 Reading and Writing questions. The test asks what a word means as used in the passage, so a word’s most common meaning is not always the answer. More of these, with full explanations, are on SAT Words in Context practice questions.

  • arcane: Mysterious and understood by few people only.
  • cryptic: Mysterious and difficult to understand or interpret.
  • enigmatic: Mysterious and difficult to understand or explain.
  • esoteric: Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small group.
  • intractable: Difficult to manage, control, or solve despite efforts.
  • obfuscate: To make something unclear or intentionally confusing and hard to understand.

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