nebulous

UK/ˈnɛbjʊləs/US/ˈnɛbjʊləs/

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,495 of 15,258leans written

Nebulous means vague and without clear shape or definition. A nebulous concept, nebulous plans, nebulous and unhelpful.

It is a criticism of an idea that cannot be pinned down, which is why it appears in reviews of policy. The Latin means misty, from nebula, a cloud, which is where the astronomical nebula comes from.

Definitions of nebulous

1adjectivenebulousVague and without clear shape or definition.C1
“His plans for the future are rather nebulous; he just says he wants to travel.”

nebulous is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin nebulosus means misty, from nebula, a mist or cloud.

Middle English
nebulous
English, today
nebulous

Built from

nebula · Latin — mist, vapour, cloud

From Middle English nebulous. Middle English nebulous, from Middle French nebuleus, from Latin nebulōsus (“full of mist, foggy, cloudy”), from nebula (“mist, vapour, cloud”), from Proto-Indo-European nébʰos (“cloud, vapor, fog, moist, sky”). by surface analysis, nebula + -ous. More at neveling, nuel. 2

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

nebulous in the wild

Under dark skies, the Beehive Cluster looks like a small nebulous object to the naked eye, and has been known since ancient times.
Beehive Cluster
Classical astronomer Ptolemy described it as a "nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer".
Beehive Cluster
The nebulous galaxy features a bright central bulge and diffuse arms with distinct star-forming regions.
NGC 1483
The nebulous wrasse (Halichoeres nebulosus) is a species of wrasse native to the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean.
Nebulous wrasse

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the nebula family

nebula

nebulous — used about once every 54,060 pages · #14,495 · point at the bar for the others

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