CONSPICUOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does conspicuous mean? 

• CONSPICUOUS (adjective)
  The adjective CONSPICUOUS has 2 senses:

1. obvious to the eye or mind

2. without any attempt at concealment; completely obvious

  Familiarity information: CONSPICUOUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONSPICUOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Obvious to the eye or mind

Context example:

made herself conspicuous by her exhibitionistic preening

Similar:

attention-getting; eye-catching (seizing the attention)

big; large; prominent (conspicuous in position or importance)

bold (clear and distinct)

crying; egregious; flagrant; glaring; gross; rank (conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible)

featured (made a feature or highlight; given prominence)

in evidence (clearly to be seen)

marked (singled out for notice or especially for a dire fate)

outstanding; prominent; salient; spectacular; striking (having a quality that thrusts itself into attention)

Also:

indiscreet (lacking discretion; injudicious)

Attribute:

conspicuousness (high visibility)

Antonym:

inconspicuous (not prominent or readily noticeable)

Derivation:

conspicuousness (high visibility)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Without any attempt at concealment; completely obvious

Synonyms:

blatant; blazing; conspicuous

Context example:

a blazing indiscretion

Similar:

unconcealed (not concealed or hidden)

Derivation:

conspicuousness (the state of being conspicuous)

 Context examples 

He would rather walk with me in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to be conspicuous.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At the Pelly one morning, as they were harnessing up, Dolly, who had never been conspicuous for anything, went suddenly mad.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

It is characterized by the presence of a conspicuous, though variable, fraction of gemistocytic neoplastic astrocytes.

(Gemistocytic Astrocytoma, NCI Thesaurus/Adapted from WHO)

A disorder characterized by a conspicuous change in cognitive function.

(Cognitive Disturbance, NCI Thesaurus/CTCAE)

For snowshoe hares and 20 other species across the northern hemisphere, the white winter coats that once rendered them nearly invisible to predators now make them conspicuous to lynx, foxes, weasels and hawks.

(Twenty-one species adapted to disappear in the snow. Then, the snow disappeared, National Science Foundation)

Cervical squamous intraepithelial neoplasia characterized by the presence of maturation in the upper half of the squamous epithelium and conspicuous nuclear atypia which is present in all epithelial layers.

(Cervical squamous intraepithelial neoplasia 2, NCI Thesaurus)

An ependymoma which shows conspicuous cellularity without a significant increase in mitotic rate.

(Cellular Ependymoma, NCI Thesaurus/Adapted from WHO)

A leucocyte with conspicuous cytoplasmic granules.

(Granulocyte, NCI Thesaurus)

Next morning, Miss Scatcherd wrote in conspicuous characters on a piece of pasteboard the word Slattern, and bound it like a phylactery round Helen's large, mild, intelligent, and benign-looking forehead.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was conspicuous far to sea both on the east and west and might have been entered as a sailing mark upon the chart.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)