Meaning & use
non-obvious
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Not easy to notice or understand right away; requiring thought to see.
Grammar: Gradable, so you can say very non-obvious or the most non-obvious. Usually comes before a noun or after be.
Patterns
- a non-obvious fact
- non-obvious to someone
- seem non-obvious
The link between the two events is non-obvious and took years to discover.
Her advice was simple but non-obvious: ask the quietest person first.
The answer is non-obvious to beginners but clear to experts.
adjectivebefore a nounlegalspecialist
Not immediately apparent as an invention or idea, especially in patent law.
Grammar: Used before a noun in legal writing: a non-obvious invention.
Patterns
- a non-obvious invention
- non-obvious to a skilled person
The patent was rejected because the design was considered non-obvious.
Lawyers debated whether the improvement was non-obvious to an expert in the field.
Word forms
| comparative | more non-obvious |
|---|---|
| superlative | most non-obvious |
Common combinations
- non-obvious connection
- There is a non-obvious connection between the two studies.
- non-obvious insight
- The book is full of non-obvious insights about habits.
- non-obvious way
- She found a non-obvious way to cut costs.
- far from non-obvious
- The solution was far from non-obvious to the team.
- non-obvious to outsiders
- The rules are non-obvious to outsiders.
Synonyms and how they differ
- subtle
- Suggests something faint or delicate that needs careful attention; non-obvious can be stronger and simply means not easy to see.
- unapparent
- More formal and less common; it means not visible or not evident, while non-obvious often suggests a hidden insight.
- counterintuitive
- Means going against what you expect; a non-obvious fact may still fit expectations, it is just hard to notice.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: non-obvious or unobvious?
non-obvious vs unobvious
This is a rarer variant with the same meaning; non-obvious is the usual spelling, especially in academic and legal writing.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses non-obvious correctly.
Choose one answer.
Non-obvious means hard to notice, so taking hours to find it fits. Option A contradicts the meaning, option C is illogical, and option D wrongly uses an adjective as an adverb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “non-obvious”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.