obscuration
noun
obscuration is a noun meaning “The state of being obscured” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled O-B-S-C-U-R-A-T-I-O-N, and it appears about once in every 27 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of obscuration is obscurations.
What does obscuration mean?
noun
- 1
The state of being obscured.
- 2
A unit of measurement used in particular for smoke detectors which respond to absorption of light by smoke, in percent absorption per unit length, e.g. % obs/ft, % obs/m.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of obscuration
- obscurations plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is obscuration?
Obscuration appears about once in every 27 million words in written English, the 157,761st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Obscuration in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the act or state of being obscured:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | obscurcissement |
| Spanish | obscurecimiento |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does obscuration come from?
From Latin obscūrātiō. By surface analysis, obscure + -ation.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).