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:
In trials, patients have demonstrated thought-controlled cursor navigation and robotic arm manipulation -- genuine breakthroughs, although ethicists and regulators have raised questions about privacy and long-term safety.
From Barron's ● May 20, 2026
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
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
Natalie let the cursor hover over the list of cities.
From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The once-again en vogue giant animated cursors that chase you.
From The Verge ● Jul. 13, 2022
In December 2015, engineers in Ukrainian power stations saw cursors on their computer screens moving by themselves.
From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2022
The sensor arrays used in this research, smaller than a button, allow patients to move robotic arms or cursors on a screen just by thinking.
From New York Times ● Aug. 28, 2020
Dugan also suggested that the device could work as a “brain mouse” for augmented reality, or AR, removing the need for hand movements to control cursors, the Verge reported.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 9, 2017
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.
