crystal clear

• crystal-clear

Emphatic form of clear in visual and metaphorical “understandable” senses. Compare clear as a bell (“very clear (of sound)”).

• Audio (AU)

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crystal clear (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) Completely clear and understood.

   Reread through the manual until the instructions are crystal clear in your head.

   • 1945 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 1, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

     Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings?

2. (idiomatic) Visually clear, a sharp image, high acuity.

   The picture on this TV is crystal clear – you can see every grain of sand!

In sense “understanding”, used both of explanations (by speaker) – “Her explanation of integration was crystal clear,” – and of understanding (by listener) “Is this crystal clear in that thick head of yours?”

• pellucid
• plain as day

• clear as a bell (of sound)

• crystally clear