nebulous
adjective
Josef WoodardW. R. LaFave & J. H. Israel
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Nebulous may sound other-worldly—after all, it’s related to nebula, which refers to a distant galaxy or an interstellar cloud of gas or dust—but its mysteriousness is rooted in more earthly unknowns. Both words ultimately come from Latin nebula, meaning “mist, cloud,” and as far back as the 14th century nebulous could mean simply “cloudy” or “foggy.” Nebulous has since the late 17th century been the adjective correlating to nebula (as in “nebulous gas”), but the word is more familiar in its figurative use, where it describes things that are indistinct or vague, as when Jack London wrote of “ideas that were nebulous at best and that in reality were remembered sensations.”
Synonyms
Examples of nebulous in a Sentence
Rita Nader Heikenfeld, The Enquirer, 13 Apr. 2024
Ink is a nebulous material, Little explained in a phone call, made from nearly anything rich in pigments along with the binder gum Arabic.
—Jacqui Palumbo, CNN, 28 Mar. 2024
See all Example Sentences for nebulous 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'nebulous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Latin nebulosus misty, from nebula
1674, in the meaning defined at sense 1
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Cite this Entry
“Nebulous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nebulous. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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Kids Definition
nebulous
adjective
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