Definition of "obscurity" []

• Deficiency or absence of light; darkness. (noun)
• The quality or condition of being unknown: "Even utter obscurity need not be an obstacle to [political] success” ( New Republic). (noun)
• One that is unknown. (noun)
• The quality or condition of being imperfectly known or difficult to understand: "writings meant to be understood . . . by all, composed without deliberate obscurity or hidden motives” ( National Review). (noun)
• An instance of being imperfectly known or difficult to understand. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "While any list that highlights lesser known people who toil in obscurity is a good thing i would suggest the following:"
• "Now I appreciate that it may be a political fact of life in Canada that the surest way to send an up-and-coming cabinet minister to obscurity is to suggest that he has a great and glorious future before him, particularly when his Prime Minister is relatively young and healthy."
• "The spectacular mistiming of his own 2001 memoir, Fugitive Days, doomed the book to short-term infamy and long-term obscurity."