obscurity

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

• n. Deficiency or absence of light; darkness.
• n. The quality or condition of being unknown: "Even utter obscurity need not be an obstacle to [political] success” ( New Republic).
• n. One that is unknown.
• n. 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).
• n. An instance of being imperfectly known or difficult to understand.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

• n. Darkness; the absence of light.
• n. The state of being unknown; a thing that is unknown
• n. The quality of being difficult to understand; a thing that is difficult to understand

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

• n. The quality or state of being obscure.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

• n. The quality or state of being obscure; darkness; dimness; uncertainty of meaning; unintelligibleness; an obscure place, state, or condition; especially, the condition of being unknown.
• n. Synonyms Dimness, Gloom, etc. (see darkness), shade, obscuration; retirement, seclusion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• n. an obscure and unimportant standing; not well known
• n. the quality of being unclear or abstruse and hard to understand
• n. the state of being indistinct or indefinite for lack of adequate illumination