cursor
Americannoun
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Digital Technology. a movable, sometimes blinking, marker that indicates the position on a display screen where the next character entered from the keyboard will appear, or where user action is possible.
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a sliding object, as the lined glass on a slide rule, that can be set at any point on a scale.
noun
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the sliding part of a measuring instrument, esp a transparent sliding square on a slide rule
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any of various means, typically a flashing bar or underline, of identifying a particular position on a computer screen, such as the insertion point for text
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cursor
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English in the earlier sense “runner, courier,” from Latin: literally, “runner, runner in a race, messenger, footman,” equivalent to cur(rere) “to run” + -sor, variant of -tor; cursor def. 2 was first recorded in 1590–1600 and cursor def. 1 in 1965–70; see origin at course, -tor
Vocabulary lists containing cursor
Computer Science and Technology - Introductory
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Computer Science and Technology - Middle School
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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:
One showed a “B,” for “benign,” when the doctor’s cursor isolated it with her mouse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
In the late 1990s, neurologist Philip Kennedy developed the first BCI to allow a severely paralyzed patient to move a computer cursor using their brain.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 26, 2026
With the one finger he is able to move, he controls the on-screen cursor using a trackball.
From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026
A paralyzed Arizona man became the first human to receive the implant in January and has since moved a cursor, browsed the internet and played video games with this thoughts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2024
The cursor flashes, waiting while I think what to say.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
In a presentation showcasing the Neuralink implant that Elon Musk hopes will someday connect the human brain to a computer, two monkeys were reportedly moving computer cursors with their brains.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2022
He can turn typing fingers and blinking cursors into the stuff of quietly engrossing drama.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2022
In December 2015, engineers in Ukrainian power stations saw cursors on their computer screens moving by themselves.
From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2022
A draft of the speech was on everyone’s laptops and phones, in a shared Google document, which blazed with a rainbow of edits, comments and jumping cursors.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 14, 2021
Once upon a time, when glass ttys were common and addressable cursors were something special, what is now called a dumb terminal could pass for a smart terminal.
From The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Steele, Guy L.
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.
