OPAQUE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does opaque mean? 

• OPAQUE (adjective)
  The adjective OPAQUE has 2 senses:

1. not transmitting or reflecting light or radiant energy; impenetrable to sight

2. hard or impossible to understand

  Familiarity information: OPAQUE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OPAQUE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not transmitting or reflecting light or radiant energy; impenetrable to sight

Context example:

opaque to X-rays

Similar:

cloudy; mirky; muddy; murky; turbid ((of liquids) clouded as with sediment)

fogged; foggy (obscured by fog)

frosted ((of glass) having a roughened coating resembling frost)

glaucous (having a frosted look from a powdery coating, as on plants)

light-tight; lightproof (not penetrable by light)

milklike; milky; whitish (resembling milk in color; not clear)

semiopaque (partially opaque)

solid (impenetrable for the eye)

Also:

unclear (not clear to the mind)

Attribute:

opacity; opaqueness (the quality of being opaque to a degree; the degree to which something reduces the passage of light)

Antonym:

clear (allowing light to pass through)

Derivation:

opacity (the quality of being opaque to a degree; the degree to which something reduces the passage of light)

opacity (the phenomenon of not permitting the passage of electromagnetic radiation)

opaqueness (the quality of being opaque to a degree; the degree to which something reduces the passage of light)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hard or impossible to understand

Synonyms:

opaque; unintelligible

Similar:

incomprehensible; uncomprehensible (difficult to understand)

Derivation:

opacity; opaqueness (incomprehensibility resulting from obscurity of meaning)

 Context examples 

Those observations reveal that many hot Jupiter atmospheres are opaque at high altitudes.

(Cooking up Alien Atmospheres on Earth, NASA)

This new analysis also shows that these stars were the only sources needed to clear the "opaque fog" that permeated the early universe.

(First Stars Formed Later Than We Thought, NASA)

The quality of being opaque to a degree; the degree to which something reduces the passage of light.

(Opacity, NCI Thesaurus)

Like other organic iodine compounds, this agent blocks x-rays and appears opaque on x-ray film; thereby it enhances the visibility of the bile ducts and gallbladder during cholangiography and cholecystography procedures.

(Iodipamide, NCI Thesaurus)

Spots before the eyes caused by opaque cell fragments in the vitreous humor or lens.

(Floaters, NCI Thesaurus)

The spots are shadows of opaque cell fragments in the vitreous humor or lens.

(Floaters, NCI Thesaurus/CTCAE)

These metals will make the atmosphere more opaque in the ultraviolet, which could be contributing to the heating of the upper atmosphere.

(Hubble Uncovers a ‘Heavy Metal’ Exoplanet Shaped Like a Football, NASA)

Specifically, they used data from Cassini's radar imager to penetrate Titan's opaque atmosphere of nitrogen and methane.

(The First Global Geologic Map of Titan Completed, NASA)

The affluents of the Amazon are, half of them, of this nature, while the other half are whitish and opaque, the difference depending upon the class of country through which they have flowed.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The white, opaque, fibrous, outer tunic of the eyeball, covering it entirely excepting the segment covered anteriorly by the cornea.

(Murine Sclera, NCI Thesaurus)