clarity
Americannoun
-
clarities
plural
-
clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding; freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity.
- Synonyms:
- simplicity, exactness, intelligibility
-
the state or quality of being clear or transparent to the eye; pellucidity.
the clarity of pure water.
noun
-
clearness, as of expression
-
clearness, as of water
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of clarity
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English cler(e)te, clar(i)te, from Old French clarte, from Latin clāritāt-, stem of clāritās, equivalent to clear + -ity
Explanation
Clarity means clearness. Clean water running down a mountain has clarity. So does a lovely singing voice: it's clear and pure. If you bring clarity to a situation, you help people see what really happened by clearing up misunderstandings or giving explanations. Sometimes people talk about having moments of clarity when suddenly everything about a particular situation or even about life itself comes into focus. People also talk about good writing having clarity when it is precise, clean, and easy to understand.
Vocabulary lists containing clarity
Starting Your New Life: Inspiring Words from Commencement Speeches
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Keystone Exams: English Composition Glossary
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Journalism
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Veterans said they want more clarity about the debt and how it has been calculated.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
The White House has offered little clarity about the Ratcliffe trip.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
“Not complacent; I’m content. I let it run its course, and now I have clarity to go do whatever else it is.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Still, the majority of policymakers favored the view that economic data in the period leading to the Fed's September meeting "could provide more clarity, and correspondingly reduce uncertainty, about the inflation outlook."
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
Ocean had texted me, but I’d had so few moments of clarity that I never got around to texting him back.
From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi
For him, the great pursuit was the “deep blue clarities of a delighting mind”.
From Economist ● Aug. 13, 2015
The clarities proclaim something primal, the first days of life.
From Time Magazine Archive
Africa has its blinding clarities and its shadows.
From Time Magazine Archive
The citadels bristle with intolerant clarities of doctrine -- and with high-caliber weapons.
From Time Magazine Archive
Poetry: Wallace Stevens for his strange visual clarities, Robert Frost for his sly moral clarities, Walt Whitman for his spaciousness and energy.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
