tenebrous means dark and gloomy; obscure. It carries an Arena rating of 1529, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, tenebrous ranks #3,008 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #3,301 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #3,518 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #3,583 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words.
tenebrous is pronounced /ˈtɛn.ɪ.bɹəs/.
Why “tenebrous” is a great word
Marked by a profound, shadowy darkness or obscurity. From Middle English tenebrose, from Anglo-Norman tenebrous, from Latin tenebrōsus, from tenebrae ("darkness, shadows"), first recorded in English between 1375 and 1425. Unlike "murky," which suggests a thick, turbid darkness that clogs vision like silted water or fog, or "somber," which dwells in emotional gravity and subdued tone, tenebrous evokes the texture of darkness itself—dense, pervasive, and ancient. It is the chill that clings to a forgotten cellar, the way a forest interior swallows sound and light, or the particular shade of a memory half-buried—less an absence of light than a substance of shadow, settling on the skin.
Etymology
] From Middle English tenebrose, from Anglo-Norman tenebrous (earlier tenebrus), from Latin tenebrōsus, itself from tenebrae (“darkness, shadows”).
adj
- Dark and gloomy; obscure.e.g.“Over their heads the towering and tenebrous boughs of the cypress
Met in a dusky arch,[…]” — 1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, chapter II, in Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, part II, page 94:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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