opaqueness

Other forms: opaquenesses

Opaqueness is the characteristic of being either difficult to see through or hard to understand. The opaqueness of a passing car's windows means that you can't see who's driving, while the opaqueness of a poem makes it hard to figure out the poem's meaning.

When light can't shine through an object, or can just partially penetrate it, that's due to opaqueness, which you can also call opacity. When something is obscure or impossible to comprehend, that's another type of opaqueness. The opaqueness of that 1,000-page novel you've been trying to slog through might require you to keep looking words up in the dictionary as you go.

Definitions of opaqueness

1. noun

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

   types:

   cloudiness, muddiness, murkiness

   the quality of being cloudy

   blurriness, fogginess, fuzziness, indistinctness, softness

   the quality of being indistinct and without sharp outlines

   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

   dimness, faintness

   the quality of being dim or lacking contrast

   vagueness

   indistinctness of shape or character

   type of:

   quality

   an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone
2. noun

   incomprehensibility resulting from obscurity of meaning
   synonyms: opacity

   type of:

   incomprehensibility

   the quality of being incomprehensible