How to Use arcane in a Sentence

arcane

adjective
  • Humans do these weird arcane things and never do the same path twice.
    Quartz Staff, Quartz, 18 Oct. 2021
  • The Senate did not fail because of its arcane rules or because of the abuse of the filibuster.
    Ira Shapiro, The New Republic, 6 May 2022
  • Even the ins and outs of applying to graduate school are a bit arcane.
    Avery Hurt, Discover Magazine, 18 Apr. 2022
  • The start of this football season has brought to life an arcane clause from the league’s new labor deal with its players.
    Andrew Beaton, WSJ, 17 Aug. 2021
  • Many of these, like being able to swing a sword on either side of your horse, would have been explained in a less arcane game.
    Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 9 Mar. 2022
  • In the arcane world of securities filings, a few small words can turn heads.
    Charley Grant, WSJ, 24 Feb. 2023
  • But Josiah was never one to be daunted by the task of learning the arcane details of a new machine.
    Andy Greenberg, WIRED, 14 Nov. 2023
  • If this strikes you as an arcane legal debate of no great moment, think again.
    Clive Crook, Twin Cities, 10 Feb. 2024
  • The machine gave you powers but required you to study its arcane secrets—to learn a spell language.
    James Somers, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023
  • These were pre-internet times, but now any newbie kid could learn all the arcane corners of the Fabs’ career.
    Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 2 Apr. 2023
  • Much of their focus will turn to the arcane world of managing interest-rate risk.
    Joseph Menn, Washington Post, 2 Apr. 2023
  • The shop offers arcane goods, such as board games, hobby supplies, toys, Wizkids and more.
    Charles Infosino, The Enquirer, 10 May 2023
  • People got some of the most arcane and insane references about cavemen and stuff.
    Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 28 Nov. 2021
  • Their tastes can be fickle, their methods obscure and arcane.
    Jess Grey, Wired, 27 Nov. 2021
  • The latest hurdle involves an arcane dispute over the project’s water source.
    Reis Thebault, Washington Post, 22 Feb. 2024
  • There’s a kind of arcane Congress budget solution to the issue of how to insulate them.
    ProPublica, 6 Aug. 2021
  • In fact, the clouds to rain equation has become well known to many of us, even if we were not versed in the more arcane and abstruse aspects of weather forecasting.
    Martin Weil, Washington Post, 17 July 2022
  • Blockchains might be arcane and perplexing, but listening to music on a rooftop is not.
    Andrew Weaver, Outside Online, 20 July 2022
  • Plus, the sale usurped an arcane rule that the Vatican must approve church property sales in excess of $7.5 million.
    Chloe Berger, Fortune, 6 Oct. 2023
  • More and more of us have been seeking entry into this arcane ritual.
    Ana Cecilia Alvarez, The Atlantic, 1 May 2022
  • The Spurs earned a bit of arcane history with Thursday’s victory in Portland.
    Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News, 4 Dec. 2021
  • To find pieces that feature these arcane metiers d’art, look to the watch industry’s oldest and most established makers.
    Victoria Gomelsky, Robb Report, 2 July 2021
  • Flipping through the arcane rules, Baker saw a list of documents the agency will accept as proof of ownership.
    Washington Post, 11 July 2021
  • The image calls to mind a kind of condescending chivalry that is both arcane and misguided.
    Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2022
  • An acre-foot is the arcane water measurement unit the government uses.
    Brandon Loomis, AZCentral.com, 20 Nov. 2022
  • According to the arcane rules that govern players’ display of sponsor logos, the type size of the words on the bag were too big and Opelka was fined under section C of the Grand Slam code.
    Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2021
  • There are visions of a creepy priest involved in some arcane ritual, as well as a chorus of young girls dressed in virgin-sacrifice white.
    Jessica Kiang, Variety, 26 May 2022
  • Zoning law — the arcane system of hyperlocal rules for what can be built where — isn’t usually a subject that people get fired up about.
    New York Times, 26 Aug. 2021
  • But the heart of the show is Oliver's educational deep dives into often arcane subjects mixed with comedic asides.
    Editors, USA TODAY, 19 Feb. 2022
  • The Senate’s wonk-in-chief has once again shown who’s really in charge as lawmakers try to push $3.5 trillion in spending through an arcane budget rule.
    Philip Elliott, Time, 20 Sep. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'arcane.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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