Crossword clues for opacity
opacity
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Opacity \O*pac"i*ty\, n. [L. opacitas: cf. F. opacit['e].]
The state of being opaque; the quality of a body which renders it impervious to the rays of light; want of transparency; opaqueness.
Obscurity; want of clearness.
--Bp. Hall.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1550s, "darkness of meaning, obscurity," from French opacité, from Latin opacitatem (nominative opacitas) "shade, shadiness," from opacus "shaded, dark, opaque" (see opaque). The literal sense "condition of being impervious to light" first recorded 1630s.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context uncountable English) The state or quality of being opaque, not allowing light to pass through 2 (context uncountable English) The state or quality of being inaccessible to understanding 3 (context optics countable English) A measure of relative impenetrability to electromagnetic radiation such as light.
WordNet
n. the phenomenon of not permitting the passage of electromagnetic radiation [ant: transparency]
incomprehensibility resulting from obscurity of meaning [syn: opaqueness]
the quality of being opaque to a degree; the degree to which something reduces the passage of light [syn: opaqueness] [ant: clearness]
Wikipedia
Opacity may refer to:
- Opacity (optics), the degree to which light is not allowed to travel through
- Opaque context, a term to describe the linguistic context of co-referential terms
- Phonological opacity, a term in phonology
- Opaque travel inventory, the market of selling unsold travel inventory at a discounted price
Opacity is the measure of impenetrability to electromagnetic or other kinds of radiation, especially visible light. In radiative transfer, it describes the absorption and scattering of radiation in a medium, such as a plasma, dielectric, shielding material, glass, etc. An opaque object is neither transparent (allowing all light to pass through) nor translucent (allowing some light to pass through). When light strikes an interface between two substances, in general some may be reflected, some absorbed, some scattered, and the rest transmitted (also see refraction). Reflection can be diffuse, for example light reflecting off a white wall, or specular, for example light reflecting off a mirror. An opaque substance transmits no light, and therefore reflects, scatters, or absorbs all of it. Both mirrors and carbon black are opaque. Opacity depends on the frequency of the light being considered. For instance, some kinds of glass, while transparent in the visual range, are largely opaque to ultraviolet light. More extreme frequency-dependence is visible in the absorption lines of cold gases. Opacity can be quantified in many ways; for example, see the article mathematical descriptions of opacity.
Different processes can lead to opacity including absorption, reflection, and scattering.
Usage examples of "opacity".
I do not say he would be wrong to insist, but I think he might now be willing to allow that the exegetic pages which sentence by sentence were so brilliantly suggestive, had sometimes a collective opacity which the most resolute vision could not penetrate.
He turned from the inscriptions to face the room with its bizarre contents, and saw that the kylix on the floor, in which the ominous efflorescent powder had lain, was giving forth a cloud of thick, greenish-black vapour of surprising volume and opacity.
So that if you consider their quantity, their opacity, or these other discoveries, you shall finde it probable enough, that each of them may be a severall world.
Oliver Tambo, even then, had the eyes of sleepless nights behind his thick glasses, and the opacity of flesh that, as it did in Whaila, marks the faces behind which decisions must be made: loosed boulders whose thundering echoes a passage out of sight, into consequences that cannot fully be foreseen.
Banks of hard light mounted on tall poles had been repositioned about the picturesquely gnarled oak, a supporting character in its own right, high wattage carving an illuminated cave out of the solid opacity of the night, spectators gathered round like the crew at the site of an important archaeological dig, tense, subdued, primed for awe.
The light from the tiny lamps fell in all sorts of odd forms, as the rays crossed each other, or the opacity of our bodies threw great shadows.
But this content is indicated only in a representation that posits itself as such, and that which is signified resides, without residuum and without opacity, within the representation of the sign.
He could think of no way in which two hundred-odd tired and pain-racked men on as many plodding horses and with only use-dulled broadswords for armament could effect any favorable outcome in the hellishness beneath the swirling opacity of the fog.
As the opacity and porcelainlike appearance of the glands is probably due to the coagulation of the albumen, I may add, on the authority of Dr.
Banks of hard light mounted on tall poles had been repositioned about the picturesquely gnarled oak, a supporting character in its own right, high wattage carving an illuminated cave out of the solid opacity of the night, spectators gathered round like the crew at the site of an important archaeological dig, tense, subdued, primed for awe.
None of Kud'ar Mub'at's multiple eyes had lids, but a slight opacity filmed over their bright beadlike surfaces as the assembler relaxed their focus.
It’s a stubby cylinder about two meters high and two meters in diameter, its shell slick with the white opacity of carbonitrile armor.
He was wearing goggles now, continuously brushing away snow and moisture with a chamois leather, but the view ahead--or lack of view remained obstinately the same, still that greyly driving snow looming out of and vanishing into that greyly impenetrable opacity, still nothingness.
I found the familiar pattern of conditioned reaction, probed deeper - and encountered a shield of total opacity.
And once, in that same afternoon light, pouring over the Hellespontus and making everything to the west somewhat washed out, darkened to pastel opacities, her eye caught the pinprick reds of the roses in the hedge, even though she was walking the seawall-and seeing the tapestry of foam on the black water to one side of her, and the roses and Odessa rising up to the other side, she stopped, stilled by something in the double vision, by a realization-or almost-the edge of an epiphany-she felt some vast truth pushing at her, just outside her-or inside her body, even, inside her skull but outside her thoughts, pushing at the dura that encased the brain-everything explained, everything come clear at last, for once.