Opaque

adjective

/əʊˈpeɪk/

Not transparent or translucent; impenetrable to light; and, by extension in governance discourse, deliberately or functionally impenetrable to scrutiny, information, or understanding. The antithesis of the 'sunshine' norm central to the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI), opaque governance — characterised by undisclosed decision-making, hidden conflicts of interest, and inaccessible official records — is identified by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission as the primary enabler of corruption. The Electoral Bonds Scheme (struck down by the Supreme Court in February 2024) was specifically criticised for creating an opaque channel for political funding.

✍️ Usage in a UPSC answer

The Supreme Court's five-judge bench unanimously struck down the Electoral Bonds Scheme in Association for Democratic Reforms v. Union of India (2024), ruling that its opaque architecture — which concealed donor identities from the public while potentially revealing them to the ruling party — violated voters' constitutionally protected right to information.

Synonyms

non-transparentobscureimpenetrablemurkysecretiveoccluded

Antonyms

transparenttranslucentpellucidclearopen

🌱 Word Family

opacity (noun), opaquely (adv), opaqueness (noun), translucent (antonymous adj), transparent (antonymous adj)

🔡 Root

Latin opacus = dark, shaded, darkened; via Middle French opaque

📜 Etymology

From Latin opacus 'shady, dark, obscure', of uncertain ultimate origin (no clear Indo-European cognates). It entered Middle French as opaque and passed into English in the 17th century. The transferred sense of 'intellectually impenetrable' or 'not transparent to scrutiny' developed during the Enlightenment, when light and transparency became dominant metaphors for rational governance.

🧠 Memory Hook

OPAQUE: think of the word OPAque as 'OPA-blocked' — no light, no scrutiny gets through. If a glass is opaque, you cannot see through it; if governance is opaque, you cannot see through the officialdom to the decision beneath.

🏛️ Governance 📖 Seen in: Good Governance — Metrics, Indices & G...

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