COBUILD frequency band
opacity
1.uncountable noun
Opacity is the quality of being difficult to see through.
[formal]
Opacity of the eye lens can be induced by deficiency of certain vitamins. [+ of]
He insisted that the mineral content of the water determined the opacity.
Synonyms: opaqueness, cloudiness, obscurity, dullness More Synonyms of opacity
2.uncountable noun
More Synonyms of opacity
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
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COBUILD frequency band
opacity in British English
nounWord forms: plural -ties
1.
the state or quality of being opaque
2.
the degree to which something is opaque
3.
an opaque object or substance
4.
obscurity of meaning; unintelligibility
5. physics, photography
the ratio of the intensity of light incident on a medium, such as a photographic film, to that transmitted through the medium
6. logic, philosophy
the property of being an opaque context
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
COBUILD frequency band
opacity in American English
noun
1.
the state, quality, or degree of being opaque
2.Word forms: plural oˈpacities
something opaque, as a spot on the cornea or lens of an eye
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
Word origin
Fr opacité < L opacitas < opacus, shady
COBUILD frequency band
opacity in American English
(ouˈpæsɪti)
nounWord forms: plural -ties
1.
the state or quality of being opaque
2.
something opaque
3.
the degree to which a substance is opaque; capacity for being opaque
4.Photography
the proportion of the light that is absorbed by the emulsion on any given area of a film or plate
5.
obscurity of meaning
6.
mental dullness
7.Medicine
an opaque spot or area in normally clear or transparent tissue, as a cataract of the eye
Most material © 2005, 1997, 1991 by Penguin Random House LLC. Modified entries © 2019 by Penguin Random House LLC and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Word origin
[1550–60; ‹ L opācitās shade. See opaque, -ity]
Examples of 'opacity' in a sentence
opacity
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Vehicles loomed out of opacity, the headlamps surrounded by auras like distant moons, ground cautiously by, and receded into obscurity. Murray, Stephen DEATH AND TRANSFIGURATION (2002) Martin, Joy THE IMAGE OF LAURA (2002) Salley Vickers INSTANCES OF THE NUMBER 3 (2002) Peter Straub LOST BOY LOST GIRL (2002) Royal Society Biography and Memoirs (2022)
