backlight

English

Etymology

back +‎ light

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbæk.laɪt/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Noun

backlight (plural backlights)

1. (uncountable) Light shining from a source behind the object of interest or attention.

   The backlight from the sunset cast the pier and the crowd in silhouette.

   Egg candling uses backlight to look for chick embryos.

   1. (countable) A spotlight that illuminates a photographic subject from behind.
   2. (uncountable) Light that is behind a photographic subject.
      • 2006, Michael Grecco, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Amphoto Books, →ISBN, page 73:

        If I do use backlight, it's not to separate the subject from the background; I use it to set a psychological mood, or to create a look.

   3. (countable) A light attached to an LCD display.
2. (countable) The rear window of a motor car.

Translations

spotlight that illuminates a photographic subject from behind

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: tegenlicht (nl) n
• Finnish: taustavalo
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: contrejour (fr) m
• Hungarian: ellenfény (hu)
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: contraluz f

light attached to an LCD display

• Catalan: retroil·luminació f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: backlight m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Esperanto: fonlumo
• Finnish: taustavalo
• French: rétroéclairage (fr) m
• Italian: retroilluminazione (it) f
• Portuguese: retroiluminação f
• Spanish: retroiluminación f

rear window of a motor car

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: achterruit (nl) m or f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Finnish: takaikkuna
• French: lunette arrière (fr) f
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

Verb

backlight (third-person singular simple present backlights, present participle backlighting, simple past and past participle backlighted or backlit)

1. (transitive) To illuminate something from behind.
   • 2007 June 2, James R. Oestreich, “Strange, Faraway Fantasies of Hell and Paradise”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     It offers few subtleties, but those can be effective, as when the chorus is backlighted in the rear of the auditorium to produce an ominous play of shadows onstage.

Translations

illuminate something from behind

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: taustavalaista
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: éclairer par derrière, rétro-éclairer (fr)
• Italian: illuminare dal di dietro
• Spanish: retroiluminar (es)