test pattern

noun

Television.

1. a geometric design broadcast to receivers for testing the quality of transmission, often identifying the transmitting station and channel.

Word History and Origins

Origin of test pattern¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

Jackson’s image glows blood-red, then flips to a television test pattern as the kids file out into the world.

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During the evening, Mr. Morrisett told the guests that his daughter Sarah was so mesmerized by TV that she would watch the test pattern on weekend mornings until cartoons began.

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That’s certainly not what I’d tell my young daughter, if she weren’t so disgusted by the meanness and futility around our politics that she’d rather watch a test pattern on TV than sit through 10 minutes of these hearings, as important and dramatic as they are.

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Writer-director-producer Shatara Michelle Ford saw her movie “Test Pattern” nominated for first feature, first screenplay and female lead for Brittany S. Hall.

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Our New Generation prize, given to a breakout filmmaker or performer, was awarded jointly to Shatara Mitchell Ford, who made one of the year’s sharpest debut features with “Test Pattern,” and Tatiana Huezo, who made a powerful swerve from nonfiction into fiction with the devastating “Prayers for the Stolen.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times