Transparent half circle cut out of a div

Question

I would like to make a transparent cut out half circle shape using only CSS3. The only requirement is that all the elements that form the shape must be black or transparent.

I cannot use a black rectangle with a white circle on top of it because the half circle has to be transparent and let the background show through.

Desired shape :

Answer 1

May be can do it with CSS :after pseudo property like this:

body {
  background: green;
}

.rect {
  height: 100px;
  width: 100px;
  background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
  position: relative;
  margin-top: 100px;
  margin-left: 100px;
}

.circle {
  display: block;
  width: 100px;
  height: 50px;
  top: -50px;
  left: 0;
  overflow: hidden;
  position: absolute;
}

.circle:after {
  content: '';
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  -moz-border-radius: 100px;
  -webkit-border-radius: 100px;
  border-radius: 100px;
  background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);
  position: absolute;
  top: -100px;
  left: -40px;
  border: 40px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
}

<div class="rect">&nbsp;<span class="circle"></span></div>

View on JSFiddle

Answer 2

You can use box-shadows to make the transparent cut out circle :

body {
  background: url(http://i.imgur.com/qi5FGET.jpg) no-repeat;
  background-size: cover;
}
div {
  display: inline-block;
  width: 300px; height: 300px;
  position: relative;
  overflow: hidden;
}
div:before {
  content: '';
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 50%;
  width: 100%; height: 100%;
  border-radius: 100%;
  box-shadow: 0px 300px 0px 300px #000;
}
.transparent {
  opacity: 0.5;
}

<div></div>
<div class="transparent"></div>

This can be responsive with percentage lengths:

body {
  background: url(http://lorempixel.com/output/people-q-c-640-480-1.jpg) no-repeat;
  background-size: cover;
}
div {
  width: 40%; height: 300px;
  position: relative;
  overflow: hidden;
}
div:before {
  content: '';
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 50%;
  width: 100%; height: 100%;
  border-radius: 100%;
  box-shadow: 0px 300px 0px 300px #000;
}
.transparent {
  opacity: 0.5;
}

<div class="transparent"></div>