clip art

American  

noun

1. drawings or illustrations available, as in a book, on a CD-ROM, or in an online gallery, for easy insertion into other material.

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clip art British  

noun

1. a large collection of simple drawings stored in a computer from which items can be selected for incorporation into documents

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Etymology

Origin of clip art

First recorded in 1955–60; so called because the original clip art was clipped or cut out from a printed page, usually in books of illustrations specifically designed for this purpose.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

clip art

Wiener, the author, said it was his “strong speculation” that the artwork was made using computer clip art.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2024

The Moby Dick bot, as well as one that sent out computer clip art from 1994 and one called “weird satellite” have all left Twitter.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 13, 2023

Another time the coach halted a PowerPoint presentation when a marketing slide featured clip art of a football play diagram.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 1, 2022

Now, months after we first published this explainer, we’re still seeing headlines about people paying house-money for clip art of rocks — and my mom still doesn’t really understand what an NFT is.

From The Verge ● Aug. 18, 2021

Instead of using clip art, we made our own versions out of random things we found around town.

From "P.S. I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy