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fade-in

American  
[feyd-in] / ˈfeɪdˌɪn /

noun

fade-ins plural
  1. Movies, Television. a gradual increase in the visibility of a scene.

  2. Broadcasting, Recording. a gradual increase in the volume of sound, especially of recorded or broadcast music, dialogue, or the like, usually starting from complete inaudibility.


fade-in British  

noun

  1. films an optical effect in which a shot appears gradually out of darkness

  2. a gradual increase in the volume in a radio or television broadcast

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. Also: fade up.  to increase or cause to increase gradually, as vision or sound in a film or broadcast

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of fade-in

First recorded in 1915–20; noun use of verb phrase fade in

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:

Beginning with a fade-in of the tramp's a cappella singing, it slowly builds and swells, with new instruments constantly added to a basic string quintet.

From Time Magazine Archive

From first fade-in to final fadeout, Rock more than lives up to his name.

From Time Magazine Archive

He doesn’t announce these shifts; there are no mysterious fade-ins, no portentously twirling camerawork.

From New York Times Aug. 25, 2016

By 1938 another type of radio drama was in full flower, especially at CBS: the original radio script, with its narrators, its musical "bridges," its fade-outs, fade-ins, sound effects.

From Time Magazine Archive

The title seems to have been chosen to reflect its nonlinear, outwardly random structure, which in turn is apparently meant to evoke "time's fade-outs and fade-ins and cross-fades."

From Time Magazine Archive

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