TRANSPARENT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does transparent mean? 

• TRANSPARENT (adjective)
  The adjective TRANSPARENT has 4 senses:

1. transmitting light; able to be seen through with clarity

2. so thin as to transmit light

3. free of deceit

4. easily understood or seen through (because of a lack of subtlety)

  Familiarity information: TRANSPARENT used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TRANSPARENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Transmitting light; able to be seen through with clarity

Synonyms:

crystal clear; crystalline; limpid; lucid; pellucid; transparent

Context example:

transparent crystal

Similar:

clear (allowing light to pass through)

Derivation:

transparence (the quality of being clear and transparent)

transparence; transparency (permitting the free passage of electromagnetic radiation)

transparentness (the quality of being clear and transparent)

Sense 2

Meaning:

So thin as to transmit light

Synonyms:

cobwebby; diaphanous; filmy; gauze-like; gauzy; gossamer; see-through; sheer; transparent; vaporous; vapourous

Context example:

vaporous silks

Similar:

thin (of relatively small extent from one surface to the opposite or in cross section)

Derivation:

transparency (permitting the free passage of electromagnetic radiation)

transparentness (the quality of being clear and transparent)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Free of deceit

Synonyms:

guileless; transparent

Similar:

square; straight (characterized by honesty and fairness)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Easily understood or seen through (because of a lack of subtlety)

Context example:

a transparent lie

Similar:

obvious (easily perceived by the senses or grasped by the mind)

Derivation:

transparency (the quality of being clear and transparent)

 Context examples 

This is the point at which the universe became transparent to light.

(Most Distant Black Hole, NASA)

Administration within the cornea (the transparent structure forming the anterior part of the fibrous tunic of the eye).

(Intracorneal Route of Administration, Food and Drug Administration/CDISC)

Small transparent objects can be isolated or fixed using focused laser light.

(Optical Trap, NCI Thesaurus)

All their cells have been identified, and individual cells, including neurons, can be studied in living animals since they’re transparent.

(Magnetic Field Sensor Unearthed in Worms, NIH)

C. elegans has a transparent body plan, which facilitates watching microsporidia, how it grows and what it does to host cells.

(New Pathway for Handling Stress Discovered, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

For two days we made our way up a good-sized river some hundreds of yards broad, and dark in color, but transparent, so that one could usually see the bottom.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The part of the conjunctiva, a thin transparent mucous membrane, that covers the posterior surface of the eyelids.

(Murine Palpebral Conjunctiva, NCI Thesaurus)

The transparent part of the eye that covers the iris and the pupil and allows light to enter the inside.

(Cornea, NCI Dictionary)

As these first stars came to life, their light split neutral atoms apart, making the universe transparent.

(First Stars Formed Later Than We Thought, NASA)

A transparent, biconvex structure of the EYE, enclosed in a capsule and situated behind the IRIS and in front of the vitreous humor (VITREOUS BODY).

(Lens, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)