Opacity

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /oʊˈpæsɪti/

Definitions

1. The quality of being difficult to see through or understand, lacking transparency or clarity
2. The characteristic of being impenetrable to light or unclear in meaning, making it challenging to perceive or interpret information clearly
3. The property of not allowing light to pass through, resulting in a lack of visibility or comprehension when relating to concepts or ideas

Etymology: Latin "opacus" meant "shaded" or "dark," and it is the root from which English gets "opacity." The Latin noun "opācitās" was built from it, and French took that into "opacité" before English borrowed the word from there. The English noun is simply the adjective "opaque" with the suffix "-ity" attached, a common pattern for turning adjectives into nouns of quality. The original sense is physical: something opaque blocks light, so the word describes how completely a material stops it from passing through. The figurative sense, a lack of clarity in ideas or meaning, grew out of that picture. A vague argument or obscure text is treated as something that stops understanding from getting through, just as a wall stops light.

Synonyms: opacity, cloudiness, haze, blur, dullness

Antonyms: clarity, transparency, clearness