noun
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a small hole made with or as if with a pin
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archery the exact centre of an archery target, in the middle of the gold zone
Etymology
Origin of pinhole
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.
The Olympics are an incredible showcase but also a pinhole sample—a once-every-four-years event in which glory and disaster can come down to hundredths of seconds.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 18, 2026
If you don't have access to eclipse glasses, you can create a simple pinhole camera with just two sheets of cardboard or even use a colander to project the Sun's image safely onto the ground.
From BBC • Mar. 28, 2025
Then, facing away from the sun, allow light to stream through this pinhole.
From New York Times • Apr. 7, 2024
She describes the hundreds of tiny crescent “baby eclipses” that formed in the shadows when vines and leaves acted like pinhole cameras.
From Slate • Apr. 6, 2024
The pinhole camera concealed in the locator had worked perfectly.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
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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.