Nebulous

Definitions: Nebulous

Nebulous

Adjective

1. Lacking definite form or limits; "gropes among cloudy issues toward a feeble conclusion"- H.T.Moore; "nebulous distinction between pride and conceit".

2. Lacking definition or definite content; "nebulous reasons"; "unfixed as were her general notions of what men ought to be"- Jane Austen.

Date "nebulous" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1841. (references)

Synonyms: Nebulous

Synonyms: cloudy (adj), nebulose (adj), unfixed (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Bubble	Cloudy. Noun: thunderheaded; vaporous, nebulous, overcast.
Unintelligibility	Obscure, dark, muddy, clear as mud, seen through a mist, dim, nebulous, shrouded in mystery; opaque, dense; undiscernible; (invisible); misty; (opaque); hidden; latent.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Nebulous

English words defined with "nebulous": embodiment ♦ Inglobate ♦ Nebulosity, Nebulous star, nebulously ♦ shape. (references)

Specialty definitions using "nebulous": nebulosus. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	A History of Modern Planetary Physics Hardback set: Volume 1, The Origin of the Solar System and the Core of the Earth from Laplace to Jeffreys : Nebulous Earth (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"Nebulous" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Nebulous" is used about 85 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	85	35,870

Expression using "nebulous": nebulous star. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "nebulous"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		nebular, i paqartë (abstract, dark, dim, doubtful, dubious, dusky, evasive, inarticulate, indefinite, indeterminate, indistinct, muddy, obscure, out of focus, recondite, shadowy, uncertain, unclear, undistinguishable, undistinguished, unknowable, unreadable, vague), i mjegullt (foggy, hazy, misty, vague), i errët (abstruse, addle, ambiguous, arcane, black, blind, cloudy, dark, darkling, darksome, deep, delphian, delphic, dim, dingy, dusky, foggy, fuscous, gloomy, indeterminate, inky, low-browed, mirk, misted, muddy, murk, murky, nigrescent, obscure, opaque, recondite, sable, sad, secret, shady, somber, sombre, tenebrous). (various references)

Arabic		‏غير واضح (cloudy, dull, foggy, fuzziness, fuzzy, inconspicuous, indefinite, indistinct, unclear, vague), ‏غامض (abstruse, ambiguous, cloudy, deep, dim, double faced, dreamy, enigmatic, evasive, fuzzy, grave, hazy, impenetrable, incomprehensible, indecisive, indefinite, indeterminate, indistinct, indistinguishable, inscrutable, intangible, lax, magic, magical, misty, mysterious, mystic, obscure, occult, opaque, puzzling, recondite, secret, shady, sketchy, slippery, sloppy, uncertain, unintelligible, vague, woolly), ‏غائم (blear, bleary, clouded over, cloudy, dull, filmy, fuzzy, hazy, woolly), ‏سديمي (misty), ‏ضبابي (foggy, fuzziness, hazy, misty, sloppy, vaporous). (various references)

Bulgarian		като мъглявина, облачен (cloudy, heavy, overcast, thick), неясен (abstruse, ambiguous, amorphous, blear, bleary, confused, crepuscular, dark, doubtful, dreamy, dusk, fuzzy, hazy, illegible, inarticulate, indecisive, indefinable, indefinite, indistinct, intangible, involved, inward, loose, misty, muddy, muzzy, obscure, pale, recondite, shadowy, soft, transcendental, ulterior, unclear, undecided, unformed, vague, vapory, vapoury, wan, woolly), небуларен (nebular), мъгляв (dusky, filmy, muzzy), мъглив (brumous, damp, dull, foggy, hazy, misty, thick, vaporous, vapory, vapoury), замъглен (befogged, blear, bleary, filmy, foggy, hazy, misted, misty, smoky, vapory, vapoury), безформен (amorphous, formless, lumpy, misshapen, shapeless, unboiled). (various references)

Chinese		暧昧. (various references)

Czech		mlhovinový, mlhavý (dim, foggy, hazy, indefinite, misty, vague, vapoury). (various references)

Farsi		محو (Deletion, Obscure, Pallid), تیره (Black, Caliginous, Dark, Gloomy, Heavy, Ilk, Indistinct, Lurid, Muddy, Murky, Obscure, Overcast, Thick, Turbid), تار (Caliginous, Chord, Dim, Fiber-Fibre, Filament, Obscure), شبیه سحاب , بشکل ابر. (various references)

Finnish		sumuinen (foggy, misty). (various references)

French		nébuleux. (various references)

German		neblig (foggy, hazy, mistily, misty, nebulously), nebelig (drizzly, foggy, fuzzy, misty). (various references)

Greek		νεφελώδησ (cloudy, nubilous, overcast, steamy), ομιχλώδησ (foggy, hazy, misty). (various references)

Hebrew		מעורפל (dim, filmy, foggy, fuzzy, hazy, misty, shadowy), מעו� ן (cloudy, overcast), ערפילי (foggy, misty, vague). (various references)

Hungarian		ködfoltszerű, ködös (brumous, dirty, faint, foggy, hazy, misty, muddy, steamy, turbid, woolly), homályos (abstruse, apocalyptic, bleary, blurred, cloudy, darksome, dim, dusk, dusky, equivocal, foggy, frosted, fuzzy, gloomy, hazy, indistinct, indistinctive, lustreless, misty, murky, oblique, obscure, recondite, shadowy, shady, shape, stygian, transcendental, twilit, unclear, vague). (various references)

Indonesian		kabus. (various references)

Italian		nebuloso (hazy, vague), vago (dim, dreamy, faint, hazy, indefinite, loose, remote, undefined, undesignated, undetermined, vague), indistinto (dim, fuzzy, hazy, inarticulate, indistinct, shadowy, undistinguishable, unemphatic, unexplicit, vague). (various references)

Manx		kayeeagh (foggy, hazy, misty), bodjallagh (blear, blear of outline, cloudy, foggy, overcast). (various references)

Pig Latin		ebulousnay.(various references)

Portuguese		nebuloso (cloudy, desolate, dismal, dreary, foggy, gaunt, gloomy, hazy, misty, mournful, vaporous), nebulosidade (cloudiness, haziness, nebulosity), vago (empty, faraway lands, fuzzy, general, half-light, hazy, indeclinable, indelibility, indescribable, indeterminate, jumbled up, lax, loose, neutral country, remote, spare, transcendental, vacant, vague), sem forma definida, pouco claro (abstruse, cramped, hidebound, inarticulate, inexpressible, mum, obscure, tight lipped), indistinto (dim, fuzzy, he, inartificial, incomparable, indistinct, lax, misunderstand, mum, thick, tight lipped). (various references)

Romanian		nebulos (misty, nebulously), vag (dim, distant, dull, dusty, evasive, evasively, faint, general, hazy, indefinable, indefinite, indeterminate, indistinct, lax, loose, loosely, misty, muddy, remote, shadowy, sketchy, slight, vague, washy), confuz (abashed, addle, bewildered, blurred, chaotic, confused, crabbed, dim, embarrassed, faint, gloomily, hazy, hugger mugger, misty, muddy, muzzy, stodgy, turbid, vague, washy, wrongheaded), ceţos (brumous, dim, dull, filmy, foggy, hazy, misty, vague, vaporous), înnourat (cloudy, nubilous). (various references)

Russian		смутный (dim, foggy, hazy, indistinct, shadowy), туманный (brumous, cloudy, filmy, fog, foggy, hazy, misty, turbid, vapoury). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		nejasan (abstruse, bleary, blurred, dim, fuzzy, hazy, indistinct, indistinctive, obscure, recondite, unclear, undetermined, vague), nebulozan (vague), maglovit (brumous, foggy, hazy, misty, muzzy, vague). (various references)

Spanish		nebuloso (foggy, misty). (various references)

Swedish		oklar (cloudy, dim, fuzzy, incoherent, indefinite, indistinct, misty, obscure, opaque, sketchy, unclear, woolly). (various references)

Thai		เต็มไป�"้วยเมฆหมอก, คลุมเครือ (fog, obscure, opaque). (various references)

Turkish		dumanlı (foggy, hazy, Reeky, smoky, thick), bulutsu, bulutlu (clouded, cloudy, cloudyly, murky, opaque, overcast, skyless), belli belirsiz (dreaming, dreamy, faint, hardly visible, imperceptible, indistinct, indistinctly, insensible, nebulously, shadowy, slight, slightly, soft, tentative, vaguely), şüpheli (chancy, contestable, creaky, debatable, discredited, disputable, dodgy, doubtful, dubious, dubitative, equivocal, fishy, funny, funny peculiar, hazardous, indecisive, indefinable, murky, precarious, problematic, problematical, sceptical, screwy, shadowy, shady, shaky, skeptical, speculative, suspect, suspenseful, suspicious, umbrageous, uncertain, unconvincing). (various references)

Ukranian		сирий (crude, dabby, damp, dank, moist, moisty, poachy, raw, splashy, wet), розпливчастий (blurred, deliquescent, flabby, indistinct, loose), хмароподібний, хмарний (cloudy, glum, murky, nebulose, nubilous, overcast), туманний (brumous, damp, delphic, filmy, foggy, hazy, misty, nebulose, nubilous, obscure, soupy, turbid, vaporous, vapourish, vapoury), неясний (abstruse, ambiguous, amorphous, blear, blind, blurred, chancy, darkling, doubtful, dusk, faint, fuzzy, hazy, indistinct, misty, nebulose, nubilous, obscure, opaque, oracular, oraculous, recondite, shadowy, transcendental, unaccounted for, unclear, undistinguished, woolly, wooly), невиразний (chancy, characterless, dim, elusive, expressionless, faint, featureless, foggy, hazy, indecisive, ineffective, inexpressive, milk and water, nebulose, neutral, obscure, toneless, weak, wishy washy, woolly, wooly). (various references)

Vietnamese		âm u (dull, murky). (various references)

Welsh		nifylog (misty). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "nebulous": nebulously, nebulousness, nebulousnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Nebulous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Nabokovs, nabulous, neblous, nebolous, nebulis, nebulium, nebulos, nebulosa, nebulosus, nebulouse, nebuluous, nebulus, neburous, nubulous, Sebaldus. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "nebulous" (pronounced ne"byulus)
6	-b y u l u s	fabulous.
5	-y u l u s	calculus, meticulous, miraculous, populace, populous, ridiculous, scrupulous, stimulus, tremulous, unscrupulous.
4	-u l u s	acropolis, anomalous, Carolus, frivolous, garrulous, incredulous, libelous, marvelous, megalopolis, merciless, metropolis, nautilus, necropolis, Oxalis, pendulous, perilous, querulous, scandalous, scurrilous, syphilis, tantalus.
3	-l u s	accomplice, ageless, aimless, airless, Amaryllis, atlas, bacillus, backless, balas, baseless, blameless, bloodless, bolus, boneless, bottomless, boundless, brainless, breathless, callous, callus, careless, cashless, ceaseless, childless, classless, cloudless, clueless, Colas, colorless, cordless, countless, cutlass, defenseless, digitalis, directionless, doubtless, driverless, ductless, earless, effortless, endless, expressionless, eyeless, faceless, fatherless, fearless, featherless, featureless, feckless, fellas, fenceless, flawless, flightless, frictionless, fruitless, Gallus, gladiolus, godless, graceless, groundless, guileless, guiltless, hairless, hapless, harmless, headless, heartless, helpless, homeless, hopeless, hornless, humorless, irregardless, issueless, jealous, jobless, keyless, lactobacillus, landless, lawless, leaderless, leafless, legless, lifeless, limbless, limitless, listless, loveless, luckless, malice, meaningless, meatless, mindless, motherless, motionless, nameless, necklace, needless, odorless, overzealous, painless, palace, paperless, peerless, penniless, pilotless, pitiless, pointless, polis, powerless, priceless, prothallus, purposeless, reckless, regardless, relentless, remorseless, restless, riskless, rootless, rudderless, ruthless, scoreless, seamless, selfless, senseless, sexless, shameless, shapeless, shiftless, skinless, sleepless, sleeveless, smokeless, solace, soulless, speechless, spineless, spotless, stainless, stateless, stylus, surplus, tasteless, thankless, thoughtless, ticketless, tieless, timeless, tireless, toothless, topless, treeless, trellis, useless, valueless, victimless, voiceless, warrantless, weightless, windlass, windowless, wireless, witless, wordless, worthless, zealous, zipless.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "b-e-l-n-o-s-u-u"
	-2 letters: blouse, boules, ensoul, nobles, obelus.
	-3 letters: blues, boles, bolus, bones, bonus, bosun, boule, bouse, ebons, enols, lenos, lobes, louse, lubes, lunes, noble, noels, ousel.
	-4 letters: bels, bens, blue, bole, bone, buns, ebon, enol, eons, leno, lens, lobe, lobs, lone, lose, lube, lues, lune, nebs, nobs, noel, noes, nose, nous, nubs, obes, oles, ones, onus, slob, sloe, slub, slue, snob, snub, sole, sone, soul, sulu, ulus, unbe.
	-5 letters: bel, ben, bos, bun, bus, els, ens, eon, leu, lob, neb, nob, nos, nub, nus, obe, oes, ole, one, ons, ose, sel, sen, sob, sol, son, sou, sub, sue, sun, ulu, uns, use.
	Words containing the letters "b-e-l-n-o-s-u-u"
	+1 letter: undoubles.
	+2 letters: nebulously.
	+3 letters: bluetongues, botulinuses, bounteously, euglobulins, musclebound.
	+4 letters: bibulousness, doubtfulness, fabulousness, nebulousness, surmountable, untouchables.
	+5 letters: bountifulness, elucubrations, troublousness, unobtrusively, unsupportable.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.