What does becloud mean?
Becloud is a transitive verb meaning to obscure or darken something, whether literally, as clouds veil the sky, or figuratively, as confusion or prejudice veils the mind. It was formed in English in the early seventeenth century from the prefix be-, which turns nouns into verbs, combined with cloud, following the pattern of verbs such as bedim and befog. In modern usage it is chiefly literary or formal, lending a slightly archaic dignity to sentences about muddled thinking: writers speak of passions that becloud judgment or rhetoric that beclouds the truth. The word carries a negative connotation, implying that clarity has been lost and ought to be restored. Its past participle, beclouded, appears most often, as in 'a mind beclouded by grief.' Though rare in casual speech, it remains a precise and evocative alternative to blander synonyms such as obscure or confuse, and it rewards readers who meet it in poetry, criticism, and serious journalism.
verbTo darken, obscure, or cover with clouds, literally or figuratively; to make something unclear or difficult to perceive.
- To obscure or darken something, especially with clouds or mist.
- To make an issue, thought, or perception unclear or confused.
"Prejudice had beclouded his judgment on the matter."
"A thick sea fog beclouded the harbour by mid-morning."
"Anger should never be allowed to becloud one's sense of fairness."
Becloud does to your mind exactly what a storm front does to the sky — and it has been doing so since the early 1600s.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of becloud
Becloud was formed in English in the early seventeenth century from the prefix be-, used productively to convert nouns into verbs, joined to cloud. It belongs to a small family of be- formations built on weather nouns, alongside befog and bedim, all of which mean to obscure or dim. Because its elements are native English rather than borrowed, it has no foreign cognates, though it shares the underlying Germanic root of cloud with ordinary derivatives such as cloudy and cloudburst.
Related word forms
How becloud is actually used
Becloud is a formal, somewhat literary word, more likely to appear in essays, editorials, and elevated prose than in everyday conversation. It is almost always used transitively and often in a figurative sense, describing emotions or biases that cloud someone's thinking or judgment.
Easily confused with becloud
Befog also means to obscure or confuse, but it derives from fog rather than cloud and typically suggests a mental haziness, while becloud can apply to both literal darkening and figurative obscuring.