pellucid
Americanadjective
-
allowing the maximum passage of light, as glass; translucent
- Antonyms:
- opaque
-
pellucid waters.
- Synonyms:
- transparent
- Antonyms:
- opaque
-
clear in meaning, expression, or style.
a pellucid way of writing.
- Antonyms:
- obscure
adjective
-
transparent or translucent
-
extremely clear in style and meaning; limpid
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pellucid
First recorded in 1610–20; from Latin pellūcidus, variant of perlūcidus “transparent, radiant”; see origin at per-, lucid
Explanation
A sentence that teaches a new vocabulary word should always be pellucid, that is, its style and meaning should be easily understandable so that you can derive the definition from the sentence. You may have heard the word lucid, which means clear. Both lucid and pellucid derive from a Latin word that means "to shine through." Pellucid water is clear, a pellucid sky is a particularly intense shade of blue, pellucid prose is writing that's easy to understand, and pellucid singing is clear and light in tone.
Vocabulary lists containing pellucid
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Let There Be Light: Lum and Luc
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300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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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.
The shimmering and pellucid choreographic poem presents its central woman as if arriving on a breeze by way of skimming steps on pointe and ultimately exiting as breezily as she arrived.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 13, 2025
A reviewer in The Guardian called it “an eloquent, pellucid, sometimes poignant study of five female intellectuals, each of whom disdained convention to fulfill their potential as thinkers and writers.”
From Seattle Times • May 6, 2021
Developing the lo-fi blues of his early work and pre-empting Sea Change’s pellucid studies of a wrecked relationship, Beck’s wallowing is given an almost mystical edge by Indian drones and sitar tolling underneath it.
From The Guardian • Jul. 2, 2020
He has done this in a breezy, pellucid manner, with a rare talent for explaining abstruse concepts — say, collateralized debt obligations — so that even I can understand them.
From New York Times • Oct. 8, 2018
Her lashes, he recalled, were golden red, her eyes pellucid blue.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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.
