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conspicuous

/kənˈspɪkjuəs//kənˈspɪkjuəs/·adjective
clearly visible and attracting attention; impossible not to notice
Fig. 1 — I watch a crowd of identical grey people, and one of them, against its own will, begins to glow.
01Definition

Conspicuous describes what the eye cannot help finding — from the Latin conspicere, 'to catch sight of'. The trick of the word is that conspicuousness lives in the contrast, not the thing: a red jacket is invisible at a carnival and conspicuous at a funeral. Biology uses it for warning colors meant to be seen; sociology for 'conspicuous consumption', spending whose real product is being noticed. And the idiom 'conspicuous by its absence' completes the logic — where attention expects something, even its missing is loud.

02In use
  • iThe new glass tower is conspicuous among the brick warehouses of the old district.
  • iiThe minister's name was conspicuous by its absence from the list of supporters.
  • iiiMale peacocks pay for their vivid, conspicuous plumage with a higher risk of predation.
03Collocations
  • conspicuous by its absence
  • conspicuous consumption
  • a conspicuous lack of
  • conspicuously absent
  • make oneself conspicuous

Family conspicuously (adverb) · conspicuousness (noun) · inconspicuous (adjective)

04Relations

=noticeable, prominent, striking, eye-catching, obvious, eminent

≠inconspicuous, unobtrusive, subtle

05Compared
PairThe difference
conspicuous vs subtleseizes attention → conspicuous; quiet and easily missed → subtle (silent b: 'SUT-l').
06TOEFL & IELTS

TOEFL biology passages use it for animal signaling — conspicuous coloration that warns predators off — and test the antonym 'inconspicuous' (camouflage) in the same breath. Social-science texts lean on Veblen's term 'conspicuous consumption'. The idiom 'conspicuous by its absence' appears in reading and is a quietly impressive move in IELTS writing. Vocabulary questions pair it with 'noticeable'; learn both directions.

07Asked
What does 'conspicuous by its absence' mean?
So expected that its missing is what everyone notices — the CEO conspicuous by her absence at the crisis meeting. The idiom's pedigree is ancient: Tacitus wrote of a Roman funeral where the banned portraits of Brutus and Cassius shone brightest precisely because they were not carried. Where attention expects something, even a gap is loud.
What is conspicuous consumption?
Spending whose real product is being seen to spend — the term economist Thorstein Veblen coined in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) for luxury bought as display. The concept outlived its era intact: designer logos, supercars and flexing on social media are conspicuous consumption with better cameras.
How do you pronounce conspicuous?
Kuhn-SPIK-yoo-us — four syllables with the stress on -SPIC-. The common stumbles are dropping the fourth syllable ('con-SPIC-us') or misplacing stress on the first. Anchor it to its hidden root: conSPICuous, inSPECt, SPECtacle — the Latin specere family, 'to look', keeps the stress near the looking.
What is the difference between conspicuous and obvious?
Obvious speaks to the mind: a fact no one could miss ('the obvious answer'). Conspicuous speaks to the eye: a thing that seizes attention against its background. An error can be obvious without being conspicuous — buried in page nine — and a yellow coat is conspicuous while meaning nothing. One is about understanding, the other about visibility.
Is conspicuous a negative word?
Neutral by definition, but it often arrives with an edge of unwanted attention: 'he made himself conspicuous' is rarely praise. The scene above carries that exact charge — one grey figure begins to glow against its will, and the shared stare holds even after it panics and tries to dim. Biology is the neutral zone: warning colours are conspicuous on purpose.
What is the opposite of conspicuous?
Inconspicuous — built with the plain in- prefix, and a favourite of biology passages, where camouflage is the inconspicuous answer to warning colour. The site's own antonym pairing runs deeper: conspicuous vs subtle, two scenes side by side, in the 'Compared' list above.