pixel

noun

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pix·el | \ ˈpik-səl

, -ˌsel \

plural pixels

Definition of pixel

1 : any of the small discrete elements that together constitute an image (as on a television or digital screen) If the ball is flying from left to right across a video screen, a pixel at one fixed location on the screen will get darker and darker as time ticks on because it depicts points farther and farther to the left on the ball.— Frédo Durand et al.

2 : any of the detecting elements of a solid-state optical sensor (such as a CCD or CMOS device) The team used a new CCD detector that has an 8,192 by 8,192 pixel array, which makes it the world's largest astronomical CCD. — Astronomy the … CMOS image sensor provides a 9-µm pixel size …— Mathew Dirjish

Examples of pixel in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Our goal was to faithfully translate Strixhaven University into interactive pixel form. — Joe Parlock, Forbes, "Wizards Of The Coast’s ‘Magic The Gathering’ Strixhaven Virtual PR Event Was A Masterclass In Pandemic Event Planning," 19 Apr. 2021 While met with mixed reception at the time of its release, Earthbound spurred a new generation of genre-bending games that blended action, horror, and humor, all wrapped up in familiar, 8-bit pixel nostalgia. — Julie Fukunaga, Wired, "Omori Is the Horror RPG of Your Dreams (or Nightmares)," 12 Jan. 2021 An area around a pair of dots on the subject’s shirt, for example, allows viewers to dive so far into the panorama that each pixel represents just over 1 micron of real world space. — Popular Science, "Check out this 10-billion-pixel, 3D panorama of an iconic painting," 25 Jan. 2021 By mapping those pixel-level baselines the study can then calculate the impact of increasing or decreasing fishing and other human activities. — Aryn Baker, Time, "How Industrial Fishing Creates More CO2 Emissions Than Air Travel," 17 Mar. 2021 Spanning three floors, the stadium-style venue has a 78-million-pixel screen viewable by up to 1,000 guests that display up to 19 games simultaneously. — Larry Olmsted, Forbes, "Las Vegas Bets Big On Sports, Welcomes Traveling Fans," 5 Mar. 2021 Each individual pixel is a diode that provides its own illumination, so the screen doesn’t need a backlight. — Popular Science, "The best entertainment tech of 2020," 3 Dec. 2020 This will allow businesses to measure web events from iOS 14 devices with help from the Facebook pixel even after the official release of the ATT feature. — Bernard May, Forbes, "Apple Vs. Facebook: The 2021 Ad Race Heats Up," 5 Mar. 2021 The planes captured footage of 32 square miles, with individuals represented as a single pixel. — Dwight Weingarten, The Christian Science Monitor, "Eye in the sky: Did Baltimore’s aerial surveillance program go too far?," 23 Feb. 2021

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'pixel.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.