limpid
/ˈlɪmpɪd
/adjective
1(Of a liquid) completely clear and transparent: the limpid waters of the Caribbean...
- Imagine interrupting a long, hot hike to cool off in the limpid water of a deserted Greek cove, lingering in a tiny, frescoed monastery - or climbing a mountain track where wild cyclamen brighten the verges.
- They would converge on the place each summer, moor their yachts in the limpid waters off Capriccioli or Cala di Volpe, and take it in turns to host parties on board or on beach.
- If the tide was up, the limpid water would wash up against the sea defences, and the smaller sailing boats that infest the river would tack right up to the sea wall.
1.1(Of a person’s eyes) unclouded; clear: the limpid grey eyes gazed trustfully at her...
- Seen from the above, the lake resembles a pair of limpid eyes.
- Margalo is a wounded bird with huge limpid eyes, and Stuart is smitten.
- Barth saw from his place at the doorway that she was looking up into his best friend's face with large limpid eyes and her lips parting to show her most dazzling white smile, her arms twined around his neck.
1.2(Especially of writing or music) clear and accessible or melodious: the limpid notes of a recorder...
- The music is limpid and languid, dripping grace and deft touches.
- With Pascal Devoyon as like-thinking partner, he gives limpid performances of music well worth an airing.
- Each bird's voice is but four limpid notes, delivered in slow, syncopated cadence, rising to a bell-like question mark.
Synonyms
lucid, clear, plain, understandable, intelligible, comprehensible, perceptible, coherent, explicit, unambiguous, simple, vivid, sharp, direct, clear-cut, crystal clear, luminous, straightforward, distinct, perspicuous
rare luculent
Derivatives
limpidity
/ noun ...- Having arrived in England in 1938 at the age of 23 as a student with very little English, he soon mastered the language sufficiently to write prose of outstanding clarity and limpidity.
- Perhaps the most notable of these celebrations is found in ‘River Music’, a three-part sequence in which he tried to draw a connection between the limpidity to which the medium lends itself and his own poetic ideal.
- In his estimation, the Authorized Version, more than any other European Bible, had a flowing limpidity combined with ritual overtones.
limpidly
/ adverb ...- Set by an idyllic lake in his home county of Leitrim, in the west of Ireland, it is an Irish pastoral, limpidly and lyrically recording the story of a year from one Easter at the beginning of the 1980s to the next.
- The following ‘Largo’ runs longer than most, but I'd not have it a moment less: limpidly beautiful and, yes, a bit Romantic, like a Mendelssohn andante.
- Here ends this thoughtful, limpidly written exploration of screws and screwdrivers, the passage of time, the evolution of civilizations, and human invention.
limpidness
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin limpidus; perhaps related to lymph.