backlight
Americannoun
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Movies, Television. a light source placed behind an actor, object, or scene to create a highlight that separates the subject from the background.
Put a backlight on that rain to make it more visible in this evening shot.
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Electronics. the light source, often LED arrays, behind the screen of a flat-screen electronic display, as a television, computer monitor, or smartphone.
A full-array LED backlight gives the picture a deeper color range than an edge-lit screen would.
verb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of backlight
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.
See Examples For:
In fact, a number of gains are to be had by deleting the backlight, starting with greater aero efficiency—critical, since the Polestar 4 is all-electric, and aero drag is the mortal enemy of range.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026
Because each pixel produces its own light, no separate backlight is required.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 4, 2026
Around him were additional signs of disrepair: an X-ray examination board without a functioning backlight, and a dust-covered ultraviolet sterilization machine that hadn’t worked in months.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
“One, I was always trying to backlight him,” he said.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2025
Suma stands in front of me, cave-glow as a backlight, bag over her shoulder.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
Its gray-green coloring sets it off nicely against darker green shrubs and its feathery foliage is lovely when backlighted by the sun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2022
New city rules are being proposed to allow for these digital ads, which planners say will be no brighter than the backlighted paper of existing ads.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2022
The photographer sets off these pictorial elements with dramatic skies, mostly dark but punctuated by backlighted clouds and, in one case, what appears to be a low-hanging moon.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 8, 2022
He displays his toys on backlighted pedestals that wouldn’t look out of place in an Apple store.
From Time ● Sep. 9, 2013
A clacking typewriter and the backlighted swirl of cigarette smoke in the opener set the old-school scene.
From New York Times ● Sep. 27, 2012
There is a traditional steering wheel, knobs and levers, while the screens consist of so-called organic light-emitting diodes, which don’t require backlighting, to create a more analog feel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026
Chloe Harmer, 20, used backlighting strips on her mirror in her uni room.
From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2026
In the case of “Dancing Through Life,” the heinous backlighting detracted from the majesty of the film’s practical set pieces in the same scene.
From Salon ● Jan. 7, 2025
To unveil the distribution of CO ice within this vast cloud, the researchers required intense backlighting from stars and hot gas.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 4, 2023
The sun had just gone down, and its afterglow was backlighting the city, which formed low cliffs around the bucolic void to the idle stockyards.
From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
Here, its backlit effect evokes the “heap of broken images” that T.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Many of the lavish amenities sit on the terrace level of the home, which holds a backlit onyx bar and a full second kitchen.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2025
In another photo, Lil Nas X poses in front of a backlit mirror as he wears a gold gown, white cowboy boots and a tiara.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2025
Other times, the film was just unforgivably backlit, with the “Dancing Through Life” scene being one of the most egregiously lit musical numbers in recent memory.
From Salon ● Jan. 7, 2025
The holy beams backlit him, so that Turner could barely make out his face.
From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt
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.
