Welcome to another astonishing installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Let's examine another pair of words close enough in spelling and meaning that they are often confused. And the Words of the Week are:
abstruse: (adjective) hard to understand; deep, profound
obtuse: (adjective) dull or slow in understanding; not sharp
-- "Word Traps", Jordan L. Linfield & Joseph Krevisky, Innovation Press, 1993.
Example: John contested his grade in history class on the basis that the professor's lectures were too abstruse for first-year students. The professor responded that it was not his fault that John was so obtuse as to sign up for a senior-level history course as a freshman.
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