Opaque

English

Adjective

Opaque (comparative more Opaque, superlative most Opaque)

1. Neither reflecting nor emitting light.
2. Allowing little light to pass through, not translucent or transparent.
3. (figuratively) Unclear, unintelligible, hard to get or explain the meaning of
4. (figuratively) Obtuse, stupid.
5. (computing) Describes a type for which higher-level callers have no knowledge of data values or their representations; all operations are carried out by the type's defined abstract operators.

Antonyms

• (physically): see-through, translucent, transparent
• (figuratively): clear, obvious, bright, brilliant

Notes

• The comparative opaquer and superlative opaquest, though formed following valid rules for English, are much less common than more opaque and most opaque and seem to occur more frequently in poetry.

Noun

Opaque (plural Opaques)

1. (obsolete, poetic) An area of darkness; a place or region with no light.
   • 1745, Edward Young, Night-Thoughts, I:

     Through this opaque of Nature and of Soul, / This double night, transmit one pitying ray, / To lighten, and to cheer.

2. Something which is opaque rather than translucent.

Verb

Opaque (third-person singular simple present opaques, present participle opaquing, simple past and past participle opaqued)

1. (transitive) To make, render (more) opaque.

Synonyms

• blur
• cloud

Adverbs for Opaque

inconveniently; absolutely; satisfactorily; necessarily; completely; hazily; muddily; cloudily; vaporously; mysteriously; strangely; admirably; disappointingly; smokily; bafflingly; perplexingly; bewilderingly.

Thesaurus

Boeotian, abstruse, adiaphanous, ambiguous, amorphous, amphibological, arcane, asinine, backward, baffling, becloud, beef-brained, beef-witted, black, blind, blockish, blurred, blurry, bovine, chumpish, clear as mud, cloddish, cloud, clouded, cloudy, cowish, crass, cryptic, dark, darken, dense, dim, doltish, dull, dull-witted, dullard, dumb, duncical, duncish, dunderheaded, elusive, enigmatic, equivocal, fat, foggy, fuzzy, gross, grumly, hazy, impenetrable, impermeable, impervious to light, indefinite, indeterminate, indistinct, ineducable, intransparent, klutzy, lumpish, misty, muddy, murky, mysterious, mystifying, nebulous, nubilous, oafish, obfuscated, obscure, obscured, obtuse, perplexing, puzzling, recondite, roiled, roily, shadowy, shapeless, slow, smoky, sottish, stolid, stupid, tenebrous, thick, thickheaded, transcendent, turbid, uncertain, unclear, unfathomable, unintelligent, unintelligible, unplain, unteachable, vague, wrongheaded

Etymology

From Latin opacus (“shaded, shady, dark”) (of unknown origin), later reinforced from Middle French opaque.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪk

Translations

Adjective

hindering light to pass through

Catalan: opac (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 不透明 (zh) (bù tòumíng) Czech: neprůhledný (cs) m. Dutch: opaak (nl), ondoorschijnend (nl), ondoorzichtig (nl) Finnish: läpinäkymätön (fi), läpikuultamaton (fi) French: opaque (fr) m. and f. German: undurchsichtig (de)

Greek: αδιαφανής (el) Italian: opaco (it) m., opaca (it) f. Japanese: 不透明な (ja) (ふとうめいな, futōmei-na) Norwegian: opak (no), ugjennomsiktig (no), ugjennomskinnelig (no) Russian: матовый (ru) (mátovyj), непрозрачный (ru) (neprozráčnyj) Serbo-Croatian: neprozirno (sh), neprogledno (sh), neprovidno (sh) Spanish: opaco (es) m. Swedish: ogenomskinlig (sv) Turkish: mat (tr), opak (tr)

Related terms

• opacity
• opaquely
• opaqueness

See also

• translucent

References

• “Opaque” in the Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

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French

Adjective

Opaque (epicene, plural Opaques)

1. opaque

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɔ.pak/, SAMPA: /O.pak/

Etymology

From Latin opacus 'shaded, shady, dark', itself of unknown origin.

References

• "opaque" in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Middle French

Adjective

Opaque m. and f. (plural Opaques)

1. opaque