adjective
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easy to see or understand; evident
-
exhibiting motives, feelings, intentions, etc, clearly or without subtlety
-
naive or unsubtle
the play was rather obvious
-
obsolete being or standing in the way
Related Words
See apparent.
Other Word Forms
- nonobvious adjective
- nonobviously adverb
- nonobviousness noun
- obviously adverb
- obviousness noun
- overobvious adjective
- preobvious adjective
- preobviously adverb
- preobviousness noun
- unobvious adjective
- unobviously adverb
- unobviousness noun
Etymology
Origin of obvious
First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin obvius “in the way, lying in the path,” equivalent to ob- ob- ( def. ) + vi(a) way 1 ( def. ) + -us, adjective suffix ( -ous ( def. ) )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The ovations were strong and heartfelt, the mutual appreciation, well, blindingly obvious.
From BBC
Renewables, he wrote, are now "the obvious pathway to energy security and sovereignty".
From Barron's
The most obvious is that we should invest in funds whose trades are mostly unpredictable, since they, on average, perform better.
From Barron's
"I'm not a pharmacologist, but none of those drugs strike me as drugs for which it is obvious that a risk of violence would ensue," said Justice Amy Coney Barrett, another conservative.
From Barron's
I didn’t have anything like that for my scroll—for obvious anonymous reasons—but the idea of just...telling a stranger about this huge part of you?
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
