caliginous means dark, obscure; murky. It carries an Arena rating of 1591, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, caliginous ranks #1,163 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #1,502 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,108 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,142 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words.
caliginous is pronounced /kəˈlɪdʒɪnəs/.
Why “caliginous” is a great word
Full of a dark, misty obscurity. From the Latin cālīgō, cālīginis ('fog, mist; darkness') and the suffix -ōsus ('full of'), via Middle French caligineux. Unlike tenebrous, which emphasizes a profound and oppressive darkness, or murky, which implies a thick, cloudy obscurity, caliginous evokes a gloom infused with vapor. It is the pre-dawn field swathed in river mist, the interior of a forgotten chapel where breath and candle-smoke mingle, or the view from a rain-streaked window on a winter afternoon—a darkness that drifts and clings, a visible dimming that makes the familiar feel just slightly alien.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French caligineux (“misty; obscure”), or directly from its Latin etymon cālīginōsus (“misty; dark, obscure”). Cālīginōsus is derived from cālīgō, cālīginis (“fog, mist, vapour; darkness, gloom”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns).
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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