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Glite Dictionary
💡 To hint at 📝 To outline briefly
to adumbrate

to adumbrate

9.9
To suggest an idea in an indirect way without full details
  • verb
  • /ˈædʌmˌbreɪt/
  • Formal
translation icon : insinuar
  • I agree with Chemiss that Aristotle adumbrates "implications of which the original author was unaware" or, perhaps more accurately, of which the original author may have been unaware.

Examples

  • Therefore, it would appear that all psychai contain an admixture of the logos (in a way that perhaps adumbrates the Platonic concept of "participation").

    Academic text (1991)

  • Barthes's reaction to MOMA's "The Family of Man" is particularly pertinent in this regard because much of what he says adumbrates reactions to another exhibition, "'Primitivism' in 20th Century Art," which took place over a quarter of a century later in that same museum.

    Academic text (1995)

  • The same problem applies to those images of community that he adumbrates by means of the synecdoche of his audience.

    Academic text (2000)

  • How do linear models adumbrate U.S. soldiers storming into CNN cameras on the beaches of Mogadishu?

    Academic text (1993)

  • He called on the God of the American civil religion as adumbrated in the Pledge of Allegiance.

    Academic text (1998)

  • In short, stability for stability's sake, with no more legitimacy or principle at its heart than the traditions adumbrated.

    Academic text (1999)

  • This literally means "Get out of that vehicle and let's fight," neatly adumbrating the erosion of village civility in the hustling big city.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Soviet-German collaboration, as well as the fascistic militarism of Berlin, Rome, and Tokyo, adumbrated present-day rogue state cooperation.

    Academic text (2001)

  • In his lecture, he tried to adumbrate the main themes of the novel without giving away the ending.

  • The report adumbrated the challenges we might face during the upcoming project.

Synonyms

to suggest
vsto adumbrate
∞ 2.1

To show that something may be true without saying it directly

offers only a partial sketch or faint disclosure instead of a full idea
to hint
vsto adumbrate
136 2.0

To suggest something in a quiet way without saying it directly

gives a faint outline or partial disclosure rather than a small sign
to allude
vsto adumbrate
88 6.5

To mention something without saying it directly

sketches only a partial or faint reference instead of direct mention
to insinuate
vsto adumbrate
42 7.8

To suggest something bad about someone without saying it directly

show a milder indirect outline rather than a charged implication
to intimate
vsto adumbrate
  • Formal
14 7.2

To suggest something indirectly without saying it

focuses on a faint public outline rather than delicate private implication
to drop a hint
vsto adumbrate
4 3.4

To suggest something in a quiet, indirect way

provides a faint outline or partial indication not direct guidance
to advert
vsto adumbrate
  • UK
1 8.1

To mention something briefly without giving details

gives a partial or faint reference rather than a passing mention

Antonyms

to reveal
∞ 2.3

Show something that was hidden or secret

to clarify
248 3.3

To make something clear so others can understand it

How Explicit

to reveal
∞ 2.3
to indicate
434 3.1
to adumbrate
  • Formal
9.9
to suggest
∞ 1.6
to imply
367 3.5
to hint
136 2.0

Surface Forms

adumbrate infinitive
adumbrated past
adumbrated past participle
adumbrating present participle
adumbrates third person singular

Morphology

adumbrate = umbrate (opaque) = ad + umbr + ate

The word is derived from Latin roots, and the meaning is not directly transparent from its components.

Etymology

Adumbrate comes from the Latin ad- ('to') and umbra ('shadow'), which gives the image of a half-seen shape. So, to adumbrate is to hint at something or give only a faint outline.