Skip to main content
transparency

transparency

3 6.3
A picture on clear film for a projector
  • noun
  • /trænˈspɛrənsi/
  • Specialized
: transparencia
  • McKee scribbles a diagram onto a transparency in an overhead projector.
  • overhead transparency

We had overhead transparencies and magic markers and blackboards or whiteboards.

Examples

  • Use an overhead transparency to discuss the student selections in each column.

    Academic text (2002)
  • The participant was then instructed to draw the target person on a transparency.

    Academic text (2000)
  • To make this lesson even better, I wish I had a transparency a bit bigger.

    Academic text (1994)
  • I forgot to mention earlier in that I have added a thin transparency in front of the lens.

  • Students may follow the theme on a transparency or poster.

    Academic text (1998)
  • The surrounding officers snap to attention as a second officer quickly brings over a large transparency.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • The transparency is upside down the first time she places it on the overhead projector.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • Students can purchase blank slides at a photography store and should use permanent transparency markers for the drawing.

    Academic text (1991)
  • We had overhead transparencies and magic markers and blackboards or whiteboards.

  • To enhance the presentation, he used an overhead projector to display a transparency of the map.

Synonyms

overhead
vstransparency
  • Archaic
1 5.3

A clear sheet put on a projector to show writing

emphasizes the photographic or drawn positive image rather than a generic sheet
viewgraph
vstransparency
  • Archaic
1 8.6

A clear plastic sheet you put on an overhead projector to show information to people

focuses on a positive photograph or drawing rather than general display sheets
lantern slide
vstransparency
  • Archaic
1 7.9

A small glass picture in a frame that you show on a screen with a projector

is an unframed flat positive image meant for general projector use
foil
vstransparency
  • Archaic
8.5

A clear sheet with a picture for an overhead projector

is the same meaning and used interchangeably in projection contexts

Compounds

Open honest communication that creates confidence between people or groups

Surface Forms

transparency singular

Morphology

transparency = transparent (semi-transparent) = transparent + cy

The projector-sheet sense is a concrete, specialized extension from the quality 'transparent' and may not be immediately obvious to all learners from the adjective alone.

Etymology

The word transparency is also used for a clear sheet or slide you put on a projector, and it gets this name because the picture 'appears through' the clear film; the same parts trans- 'through' and parere 'to appear' explain why the image shows up when light passes through it.