Etymology

crystal clear

Today it means: Without ambiguity or doubt; completely understood. Full definition →

Middle English cristal cleer
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromcristal cleer
  2. English todaycrystal clear

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.