Lucid comes from the Latin verb lucere, meaning "to shine," which is reflected in its meanings "filled with light" or "shining." It also describes someone whose mind is clear or something with a clear meaning.
clear implies freedom from obscurity, ambiguity, or undue complexity.
clear instructions
perspicuous applies to a style that is simple and elegant as well as clear.
a perspicuous style
lucid suggests a clear logical coherence and evident order of arrangement.
a lucid explanation
Example Sentences
The stroke also set off a major crisis of presidential succession, as the debilitated and not entirely lucid president continued to cling to office and plan feebly for re-election. Beverly Gage, New York Times Book Review, 13 Dec 2009His lucid history of this grim subject is scrupulously accurate, so far as I am able to judge … Richard A. Posner, New Republic, 8 Apr 2002"You would like me to read to you?" "You would oblige me greatly by doing so, Dorothea," said Mr. Casaubon, with a shade more meekness than usual in his polite manner. "I am wakeful: my mind is remarkably lucid." George Eliot, Middlemarch, 1872The atmosphere, seen through a short space of half or three-quarters of a mile, was perfectly lucid, but at a greater distance all colours were blended into a most beautiful haze … Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, 1839 He is able to recognize his wife in his lucid moments. those lucid bands that spread across the arctic sky and are known as the northern lights See More
Recent Examples on the WebEva Vitija’s documentary is lean and lucid and even at 84 minutes never feels hurried. Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Sep. 2022 For Wright’s astute and lucid outrage, his refusal to evade, his determination to make his readers hear, see, feel, think and want to act.New York Times, 7 Apr. 2022 The process is painful, but its results are unique—the Frank stories are both utterly foreign and purely lucid, a set of gnomic parables that always end in a puff of irony or ambiguity. Sam Thielman, The New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2022 In a lucid moment, her mother expresses shock at the sacrifices of her daughters. Jessica Ferri, Los Angeles Times, 3 Aug. 2022 On one hand, the whole thing is lucid and legible: humans and horses are individuated, not blurred together.Washington Post, 27 July 2022 Yet now, under the cloud of a new world war, Barr’s lucid celebration of the art that Hitler was trying to erase somehow electrified the city. Hugh Eakin, The Atlantic, 12 July 2022 Regardless of the style and formal ambition, all offer lucid glimpses into places where ordinary people face extraordinary challenges. Peter Keough, BostonGlobe.com, 26 May 2022 The first of these, written in a lucid, eagle-eyed style, chronicles the rise and rise of Benjamin Rask, an early-twentieth-century Wall Street titan. Jonathan Dee, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022 See More