murkiness

Murkiness is a quality of being foggy or muddy. You may note the murkiness of a pond and, fearing leeches (or sea monsters), decide not to swim with your friends.

Your sailboat might cut through the murkiness of a foggy bay, and an alligator hunter might brave a swamp's murkiness. Figuratively, murkiness can mean a state of being unclear, sometimes deliberately: "The murkiness of those back-room deals makes me very distrustful of the whole organization." Murkiness comes from the noun murk, "darkness that makes it difficult to see."

Definitions of murkiness

1. noun

   an atmosphere in which visibility is reduced because of a cloud of some substance
   synonyms: fog, fogginess, murk

   types:

   fug

   (British informal) an airless smoky smelly atmosphere

   type of:

   atmosphere, atmospheric state

   the weather or climate at some place
2. noun

   the quality of being cloudy
   synonyms: cloudiness, muddiness

   types:

   turbidity, turbidness

   muddiness created by stirring up sediment or having foreign particles suspended

   haziness, mistiness, steaminess, vaporousness, vapourousness

   cloudiness resulting from haze or mist or vapor

   type of:

   opacity, opaqueness

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