- [uncountable] the quality of something, such as a situation or an argument, that makes it easy to understand
- a need for greater transparency in legal documents
- The police reforms will ensure greater transparency and accountability.
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- [uncountable] the quality of something, such as glass, that allows you to see through it
- (also informal tranny)[countable] a picture printed on a piece of film, usually in a frame, that can be shown on a screen by shining light through the film synonym slide
- an overhead transparency (= used with an overhead projector)
- [uncountable] the quality in something, such as an excuse or a lie, that allows somebody to see the truth easily
- They were shocked by the transparency of his lies.
Word Originlate 16th cent. (as a general term denoting a transparent object): from medieval Latin transparentia, from transparent- ‘shining through’, from Latin transparere, from trans- ‘through’ + parere ‘appear’.
Check pronunciation:
transparency