opacity
/oʊˈpæsɪti/ noun
Forms opacities
- noun (uncountable) The state or quality of being opaque, not allowing light to pass through. “We could not see the sandbar due to the opacity of the muddy water.”
- noun (uncountable) The state or quality of being inaccessible to understanding. “The opacity of these decisions is troubling.”
- noun (optics, countable) A measure of relative impenetrability to electromagnetic radiation such as light. “The opacity of a clean glass window is near zero.”
- noun (countable) An opaque area.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
From opaque + -ity, from French opacité, from Latin opācitās, from opācus.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The state of being opaque; the quality of a body which renders it impervious to the rays of light; want of transparency; opaqueness.
- noun Obscurity; want of clearness. Bp. Hall.
Etymology [L. opacitas: cf.F. opacité.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “opacity”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details