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:
A backlight sufficient to be useful would disturb the laminar flow of air rushing across the rear decklid, increasing shearing turbulence and drag at the back of the car.
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
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
The waterfall is backlighted by the setting sun, creating a streak of orange resembling a lava flow.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2022
He displays his toys on backlighted pedestals that wouldn’t look out of place in an Apple store.
From Time ● Sep. 9, 2013
If you fell in love with a perfect pair, you wouldn’t actually wear them, you’d display in your special backlighted mahogany art shoe cabinet.
From New York Times ● Sep. 26, 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
He was born to pose backlit by a pyre of flaming zombies and does so here, with the hot wind tickling his locks perfectly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2025
Gold-hued orbs float from the ceiling against a dark interior, where jars of herbs line the backlit walls, casting a faint, warm, honey-toned glow.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2024
The dogs start barking outside, in a friendly way, and soon Matilde and Santiago are standing in the doorway, backlit by morning sunshine.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
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.
