Obvious means easy to see, understand, or notice. When something is obvious, you don't need to look hard or think deeply to figure it out. It's right there in front of you, clear as day.

If you walk into the kitchen and see chocolate smudges on your little brother's face, it's pretty obvious who ate the brownies. When storm clouds gather and the wind picks up, it's obvious that rain is coming. When a friend slumps in their chair with a frown, their unhappiness is obvious.

Sometimes people say something is painfully obvious when it's so clear that everyone should have noticed it immediately.

What's obvious to one person might not be obvious to another, though. A math problem might seem obvious to someone who's mastered that skill, while a new student struggles with it. Scientists often spend years discovering facts about nature that later seem obvious once they're explained.

When you say obviously, you mean that something should be clear to everyone: “Obviously, I can't fly to the moon.”