opacity
nounUS /oʊˈpæsɪti/
Etymology From opaque + -ity, from French opacité, from Latin opācitās, from opācus.
1
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.
2
The state or quality of being inaccessible to understanding.
- The opacity of these decisions is troubling.
3
Engineering, Natural sciences, Optics, Physical sciences, Physics A measure of relative impenetrability to electromagnetic radiation such as light.
- The opacity of a clean glass window is near zero.
4
An opaque area.
- This report concerns a child with Down's syndrome (mongolism) and bilateral congenital corneal opacities born into a family affected through three generations by Rieger's anomaly.1968, Dark A. J., Kirkham T. H., “Congenital corneal opacities in a patient with Rieger's anomaly and Down's syndrome”, in British Journal of Ophthalmology, volume 52, number 8, →DOI, page 631:
- Scanty irregular opacities are not uncommonly observed on the chest roentgenogram in the absence of interstitial fibrosis of the lungs.1992, Dick, J. A. et al., “The significance of irregular opacities on the chest roentgenogram”, in Chest, volume 102, number 1, →DOI, →PMID, pages 251-60:
- Derived terms
- nonopacity, radioopacity, radiopacity, referential opacity, semiopacity, snowball opacity, subopacity
- Coordinate terms
- transparency