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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

neb·u·lous

Audio Help [neb-yuh-luh

s] Pronunciation Key

–adjective

1.	hazy, vague, indistinct, or confused: a nebulous recollection of the meeting; a nebulous distinction between pride and conceit.

2.	cloudy or cloudlike.

3.	of or resembling a nebula or nebulae; nebular.

[Origin: 1375–1425; late ME < L nebulōsus full of mist, foggy, cloudy. See nebula, -ous

]

—Related forms

neb·u·lous·ly, adverb

neb·u·lous·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
nebulous

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

neb·u·lous Audio Help (něb'yə-ləs) Pronunciation Key
adj.

Cloudy, misty, or hazy.
Lacking definite form or limits; vague: nebulous assurances of future cooperation.
Of, relating to, or characteristic of a nebula.

[Middle English, from Latin nebulōsus, from nebula, cloud; see nebh- in Indo-European roots.]

neb'u·lous·ly adv., neb'u·lous·ness n.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
nebulous

c.1386, "cloudy, misty," from L. nebulosus "cloudy, misty, foggy," from nebula (see nebula). The fig. sense of "hazy, vague, formless" is first attested 1831.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

nebulous
adjective
1.	lacking definite form or limits; "gropes among cloudy issues toward a feeble conclusion"- H.T.Moore; "nebulous distinction between pride and conceit" [syn: cloudy]
2.	of or relating to or resembling a nebula; "the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system" [syn: nebular]
3.	lacking definition or definite content; "nebulous reasons"; "unfixed as were her general notions of what men ought to be"- Jane Austen