opacity.

1. The inability or limited ability to see through a material because it does not transmit light clearly.

2. Difficulty of understanding or inspecting meaning, reasoning or a process.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• optical opacity
• opacity of a layer

On the page

The layer’s opacity prevented the underlying mark from being read.

Optical opacity was tested under the same illumination used for the comparison.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: criterion analysis, relative importance, potential and actual distinction, evidence interpretation. Disciplines: academic writing, institutional analysis, research and conceptual explanation. Commonness: moderately common.