alpha is short for alpha channel, and it is a number from 0 to 1 that controls how transparency
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute">
<mx:TextArea alpha="0.5"
text="The alpha of this TextArea control is set to .5" />
</mx:Application>