different between riddle vs obscurity

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???d?l/
• Rhymes: -?d?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English redel, redels, from Old English r?dels, r?delse (“counsel, opinion, imagination, riddle”), from Proto-West Germanic *r?disl? (“counsel, conjecture”). Analyzable as rede (“advice”) +? -le. Akin to Old English r?dan (“to read, advise, interpret”).

Noun

riddle (plural riddles)

1. A verbal puzzle, mystery, or other problem of an intellectual nature.

   Synonyms: enigma, conundrum, brain-teaser

   • Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."

2. An ancient verbal, poetic, or literary form, in which, rather than a rhyme scheme, there are parallel opposing expressions with a hidden meaning.

Derived terms

• riddler

Related terms

• a riddle wrapped up in an enigma
• riddle stick

Translations

Verb

riddle (third-person singular simple present riddles, present participle riddling, simple past and past participle riddled)

1. To speak ambiguously or enigmatically.
2. (transitive) To solve, answer, or explicate a riddle or question.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English riddil, ridelle (“sieve”), from Old English hriddel (“sieve”), alteration of earlier hridder, hr?der, from Proto-Germanic *hr?dr?, *hr?dr? (“sieve”), from Proto-Germanic *hrid- (“to shake”), from Proto-Indo-European *krey-. Akin to German Reiter (“sieve”), Old Norse hreinn (“pure, clean”), Old High German hreini (“pure, clean”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (hrains, “clean, pure”). More at rinse.

Noun

riddle (plural riddles)

2. A sieve with coarse meshes, usually of wire, for separating coarser materials from finer, as chaff from grain, cinders from ashes, or gravel from sand.
3. A board with a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.

Translations

Verb

riddle (third-person singular simple present riddles, present participle riddling, simple past and past participle riddled)

1. To put something through a riddle or sieve, to sieve, to sift.
2. To fill with holes like a riddle.

3. To fill or spread throughout; to pervade.

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English riddel, ridel, redel, rudel, from Old French ridel ("a plaited stuff; curtain"; > Medieval Latin ridellus), from rider (“to wrinkle”), from Old High German r?dan (“to turn; wrap; twist; wrinkle”), from Proto-Germanic *wr?þan? (“to turn; wind”). More at writhe. Doublet of rideau.

Noun

riddle (plural riddles)

1. (obsolete) A curtain; bed-curtain
2. (religious) One of the pair of curtains enclosing an altar on the north and south

Etymology 4

From Middle English ridlen, from the noun (see above).

Verb

riddle (third-person singular simple present riddles, present participle riddling, simple past and past participle riddled)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To plait

Further reading

• riddle (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• riddle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• dreidl, lidder

English

Etymology

From Middle French obscurité, from Latin obsc?rit?s; synchronically analyzable as obscure +? -ity

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?skj????ti/, /?b?skj????ti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?b?skj???ti/, /?b?skj??ti/
• Hyphenation: ob?scur?ity

Noun

obscurity (countable and uncountable, plural obscurities)

1. (literary) Darkness; the absence of light.
   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, ch. 24

     I walked in, and Stroeve followed me. The room was in darkness. I could only see that it was an attic, with a sloping roof; and a faint glimmer, no more than a less profound obscurity, came from a skylight.

2. The state of being unknown; a thing that is unknown.
3. The quality of being difficult to understand; a thing that is difficult to understand.

Synonyms

• (the state of being unknown): unknownness

Antonyms

• (the state of being known): fame
• (the state of being clear): clarity

Related terms

• obscure

Translations