low-resolution
Americanadjective
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Explanation
The adjective low-resolution describes a blurry or pixelated image, or the technology used to produce it. Your low-resolution printer is not the tool you need to print out a poster-sized photo of your cat. High-resolution digital cameras can produce a sharply defined, clear image, even when you zoom in on it to make a small detail much larger. By contrast, a low-resolution camera can't achieve that much detail without losing those sharp edges. A low-resolution (or "low-res") photograph quickly becomes blurred and imprecise. This word arose from computer lingo, though the "effect of an optical instrument" meaning of resolution dates from the 19th century.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Since the mundane is where most of us live, futurists have failed to deliver even a low-resolution picture of the world in 10 or 50 years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 30, 2025
A clock was positioned on a desk, and it looked just like Anderson’s Comet, but the low-resolution picture was so blurry that any engraving it may have had was impossible to discern.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2025
“Incident” is certainly less polished than its fellow nominees, forgoing interviews or resounding scores in favor of low-resolution security camera and body-cam footage to recount the police shooting of Harith “Snoop” Augustus.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2025
The album cover is a plain green square, with the word "brat" printed in a deliberately low-resolution Arial font.
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2025
The embedded color images are low-resolution; click on an image to load a high-resolution version.
From Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution (Volume I) by Lindley, Augustus F.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
