Difference between obfuscate and obscure?

Solution 1:

If you are being evasive, unclear, or obscure about a truth, you are obfuscating.

I would use obfuscation when truth is played with deliberately.

• The people who are good at obfuscating would include defense lawyers and politicians.
• The loan contract was filled with legal words meant to obfuscate trusting borrowers.

If something is obscure, it's vague and hard to see.

• Be careful if you're driving in heavy rain — the painted lines can be obscured.
• The big elm tree obscures our view of the valley.
• The information was obscured by price stickers
• It was a way to obscure the sun or the moon.

Solution 2:

Both words can be used as verbs in a sense meaning "to hide" something. You can obscure my view of the painting by standing in front of me or draping the artwork with a cloth, but that's not obfuscation. When you obfuscate, you also befuddle or confuse, though this can be unintentional. For example, if you use a lot of jargon you might unknowingly obfuscate the true meaning of your words (i.e., render yourself unintelligible) to a layperson or, through fast talk and slick rhetoric, you may purposefully hide your meaning.