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opacity

US/oʊˈpæsɪti/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #15,126 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: opacities

Opacity is the quality of letting no light or sense through. The opacity of the glass.

It is used of prose as often as of materials, and it is never a compliment there. Opacity in an institution means nobody outside can see how a decision was made.

Anynobody · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of opacity

  1. 1nounopacityThe quality of letting no light or sense through.C2

    “The opacity of the contract was clearly deliberate.”

opacity is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin opacitas, from opacus, shaded or dark.

  1. Latin

    opācitās

  2. French

    opacité

  3. English, today

    opacity

From opaque + ity, from French opacité, from Latin opācitās, from opācus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

opacity in the wild

  • Tracing paper is paper made to have low opacity, allowing light to pass through.

    Tracing paper

  • Often, paper contains other filler materials to enhance opacity and print quality.

    Tracing paper

  • Often the overall opacity is inferred from observations, and this form of the relation describes how changes in the density or temperature (highly non-linear) will affect the opacity.

    Kramers' opacity law

  • Alterations in the spacing of collagen fibrils in a variety of conditions including corneal edema, scars, and macular corneal dystrophy is clinically manifested as corneal opacity.

    Corneal opacity

  • The term corneal blindness is commonly used to describe blindness due to corneal opacity.

    Corneal opacity

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • opaque