tracking shot

American

noun

Movies, Television.

dolly shot.

tracking shot British

noun

a camera shot in which the cameraman follows a specific person or event in the action

"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

Etymology

Origin of tracking shot

First recorded in 1940–45

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.

That song, a new number called “The Girl in the Bubble,” is staged in one whirling tracking shot.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 18, 2025

One person’s humiliating nadir comes during a painful tracking shot at an outdoor party where they’re shunned like they have the plague.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 17, 2025

Even a tracking shot of EO trotting through a lighted tunnel is mesmerizing.

From Salon • Nov. 17, 2022

He models his methods of creating suspense on the work of Brian De Palma, and cites Martin Scorsese’s famous tracking shot at the Copacabana in “Goodfellas” as his inspiration for the Díaz bullpen moment.

From New York Times • Aug. 16, 2022

Megan is not a mystery to be solved, she is not a figure who wanders into the tracking shot at the beginning of a film, beautiful, ethereal, insubstantial.

From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023