# transparency

Pronunciation: say "trans-PAIR-uhn-see" /tɹænsˈpæɹənsi/

## Noun

1. Openness about actions and decisions; the condition of being accessible to scrutiny.
   - Simple: Being open and honest, so people can see and check what you do.
   - _The new CEO pledged greater transparency in the company's hiring practices._
   - _Critics argued that the agency's transparency had declined under the new administration._
2. The quality of being transparent; the degree to which a material allows light to pass through it.
   - Simple: How clear something is, so light can pass through and you can see what is behind it.
   - _Engineers tested the glass for transparency before installing it in the cockpit._
   - _The gemstone's exceptional transparency makes it especially valuable to collectors._
3. A sheet of translucent film bearing an image, designed to be viewed by shining light through it.
   - Simple: A clear sheet of film with a picture on it, shown by shining light through it.
   - _The photographer held each transparency up to the light to check the exposure._
   - _Before digital slides, lecturers wrote their notes on transparencies for the overhead projector._
4. An artwork made on a transparent surface, intended to be viewed with light shining through it.
   - Simple: A piece of art on clear material that you look at by shining light through it.
   - _The gallery displayed a backlit transparency that shifted in color as visitors walked past._
   - _Nineteenth-century celebrations often featured painted transparencies illuminated from behind by lamps._
5. Any object or layer that is transparent; something that can be seen through.
   - Simple: Something you can see through, like clear glass or plastic.
   - _In the diagram, the outer shell is drawn as a transparency so the inner parts remain visible._
   - _Each transparency in the stacked display lets the layer beneath show through._
6. Sufficient accuracy in compression that the result is perceptually indistinguishable from the uncompressed original.
   - Simple: When a smaller, compressed copy of a sound or picture seems exactly like the original.
   - _Listening tests suggested the codec achieved transparency at higher bitrates._
   - _For archival work, engineers prefer lossless formats over relying on the transparency of lossy compression._

## Origin

Borrowed from the Medieval Latin word trānspārentia.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/transparency (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).